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Over 100 years after his death, First World War veteran Ranald (Big Mac) Macdonald’s name will be added to the Guelph War Memorial.
Former staff of the Guelph Mercury newspaper — where Macdonald was an agricultural editor before and after the war — advocated to have his name added to the cenotaph even though he doesn’t have family in the southern Ontario city.
“This was a fellow member of the newsroom and someone who had obviously made his mark,” said Phil Andrews, the Mercury’s editor until it stopped printing in 2016.
He said the former workers believed Macdonald should be recognized.
“But it’s not a story about us,” Andrews said. “It’s really a story about this terrific citizen from a bygone day who made a great contribution.”
‘He went to war when he didn’t really have to’
Ed Butts, an author and local historian, uncovered Macdonald’s story while researching names on the cenotaph in 2014.
He wrote a column on Macdonald for the Mercury that was included in his 2024 collection Guelph Stories.
“When the First World War began, he was 35 years old … and that was quite a bit older than most of the people who signed with the army,” Butts said in an interview with CBC News.
“He did not have to go, but he did.”
Macdonald was a student of the Ontario Agricultural College and later became an instructor, specializing in dairy farming.
At the start of the First World War, Macdonald enlisted with the Canadian Expeditionary Force. In 1916, he was shot and wounded in battle.
For a brief time, his Mercury colleagues thought he was dead. It was later confirmed he was alive and recuperating.
Macdonald returned home in 1919. He resumed work at the Mercury and became vice-president of the Great War Veterans Association in Guelph — it would later be integrated into the Royal Canadian Legion.
Macdonald, who was born in Scotland, died from a war-related respiratory illness in 1920. He never married and didn’t have children, and the Mercury workers had few leads on living relatives.
“It’s my understanding that the only survivor of Big Mac … was his brother who came and settled in Peterborough,” Andrews said. “They were obviously close because the brother was at Ranald’s bedside when he passed away.”
That brother, George Andrew (G.A.) Macdonald, was vice-president of the Peterborough Quaker Oats Company. He died in Illinois in March 1947.
By investigating the Macdonald family’s genealogy, CBC News found a living relative: Nancy Macdonald Jordan, an Ohio resident.
“Just about everybody in the Macdonald family worked for Quaker Oats … Ranald came over [from Scotland] many years after his brothers and chose his own path,” Macdonald Jordan said.
How Macdonald’s service will be remembered
Tammy Adkins, manager of museums and culture for the City of Guelph, confirmed there will be a ceremony for Macdonald’s addition to the cenotaph. A date hasn’t been announced, but it’s expected it will take place before Remembrance Day.
The people connected to Macdonald — whether through profession, history or family — are happy about efforts to honour him.
“I’m very pleased about the cenotaph,” Macdonald Jordan said. “He was wounded twice and deserves some recognition.”
Andrews said he’s proud to be part of the “long overdue” commemoration; Butts said Macdonald “certainly deserves to have his name there.”
