22835: Donald Macleod

Dòmhnall Iain Sheoc

Donald (1874-1957) was a son of John Macleod and Mary Macmillan of 8 Calbost.

On April 1, 1906 he enrolled in the Royal Naval Reserve Service Number B4656 and re-enrolled under D3347. His record indicates that he was 5 ft 7 in tall with blue eyes, a dark complexion and two tatttoos, one of a woman on his right arm and clasped hands over a heart and an anchor. Donald was a fisherman on Stornoway registered fishing boats including the Hilda. 

In 1912 he joined the Merchant Navy and travelled to St. Johns on the SS Saturnia, to Montreal on the SS Scandinavian, to Russia on the SS Pinegrove, to the United States on SS Aras.  Donald was Mobilised on August 4, 1914 and served in the Royal Navy in the First World War. Based at HMS Vivid and aboard HMS Donegal and HMS Valiant. His name is mentioned in Loyal Lewis: Roll of Honour 1914-1918. After the War Donald alternated with fishing on the Cawdor Castle, the Hilda, the Norna and the Oceanic and the Merchant Navy. He travelled to Key West on the SS Saranac and to the River Plate on the SS Rhodesian Transport (SS Clutha River).

At Stornoway, in 1921 he married Ann Macarthur, 8 Tolsta Chaolais. Donald and Ann were Cottars at 8 Calbost and they had four children.  Ann died shortly after her last child was born from complications of childbirth. Donald was left with a young family to rear in the depression years of the mid-1930s. A few years later, he suffered another blow when Malcolm, his 10 year old son, drowned in the sea. Despite extensive searching along the shoreline, Malcolm's body was not recovered.