MacDonald of the 42nd

Hector MacDonald was fourteen when he ran away to join the Black Watch, the famous 42nd Highland Regiment. From service in the Crimean War, where he was wounded , to the Indian Mutiny, and then through a whole array of other assignments, MacDonald saw more service than most.

Based on a single letter found in Bristol’s Docks, Donald Featherstone has written an imaginative reconstruction of the outstanding soldier’s life.

From the extensive contemporary accounts of the Regiment and histories of the Army, Donald Featherstone has reconstructed the life of a Highlander in the mid-nineteenth century. Using the archives of the Black Watch Regimental Museum and his unique access to key British military historians, Featherstone has found a wealth of period detail. Hector MacDonald was a real soldier and the actions in this book are real, his story is in many ways representative of the Victorian soldier who founded an empire by feat of arms.