Donald MacGillivray
Attribution: unknown or not recorded
Donald MacGillivray (1871-1949)
Donald was born and raised at St Mary’s Episcopal School where his father was the schoolmaster.
He left Muir of Ord at the age of 16, and served for three years as a pupil to Mr Duncan Cameron, architect and surveyor. He moved to Lancashire in 1890 where he was instrumental in founding the Blackburn Caledonian Society. After two years at Blackburn, Donald moved to work in London, where within six months of his arrival he had founded the London Highland Athletic Club of which he was secretary and treasurer until 1898, when he resigned due to ill health. He did however continue as Chairman of the committee which now included an annual Highland Gathering. He apparently was a champion hammer thrower, being able to throw a 16lb hammer well over 100 feet. Donald had been captain and honorary captain of the London Camanachd Club.
Donald served for eight years as a volunteer in the 1st V.B. Cameron Highlanders as well as in the London Scottish Rifle Volunteers.
Carer wise he had become a distinguished architect winning several accolades and competitions with his designs. His portfolio includes the Hammersmith Town Hall, the Leyton Town hall and Technical institute, the Bury Art galleries and technical institute and at east two of the London Vestries.
In 1899, his friends at the London Gaelic Society described him as;
“A Gaelic scholar, a gentleman, a man of brains and of infinite tact”
In 1901, Donald married Eleanor Mary Cawthorn at Islington and by 1906, they were now living in South Africa where his company, Messrs Macgillivray & Grant had been selected to build a bank for the African Banking Corporation at Durban, this project being the sixth architectural competition the company had won in recent years. Other buildings of note are; the Norwich Union Buildings, Cape Town; the Mowbray Scholls and the Woodstock Public Schools.
Two years later, Donald had moved to Rhodesia where he built an extensive practice as an architect at Bulawayo and Salisbury. He represented the Bulawayo Central Division in the Legislative Assembly of South Rhodesia and served for a period on the town council. By 1943, he had broken from partnership with Mr Grant and had established MacGillivray & Sons with his son, Ian Donald. In 1943 he was elected as the Chief of the Federated Caledonian Society of South Africa.
He died in 1949 at Bulawayo, Rhodesia.