Old Photograph Hill Street Dingwall Scotland

Old photograph of people outside the Royal Hotel on Hill Street in Dingwall, Scotland. James Alexander Macdonald was born in Dingwall on on 17 June 1908 one of five children to Eliza Kelman and James Alexander Macdonald, HM Chief Inspector of Schools for the Scottish Highlands and a former Rector of Leith Academy. He was home educated by his mother at Kilmacolm then at Inverness Royal Academy. He then went to Edinburgh University to study Agriculture but then decided to also study botany as a joint degree. He continued as a postgraduate in Botany, gaining his doctorate in 1935. On gaining his doctorate he began lecturing in Botany at St Andrews University and was given his professorship in 1961. In the same year he became the joint founder and official Keeper of St Andrews Botanic Garden. In the Second World War he served as a Flight Lieutenant in the RAF in India and Malaya, mainly working in radar. In 1935 he married Constance Mary Simmie second daughter of James Duff Simmie of Inverness. They had one daughter, Anne MacdDonald. He retired in 1977. Although sickly in his early life he developed a love of active sports by his late teens, including rugby and hockey. By later life he had also developed a love of golf, and was ideally located in St Andrews for this pastime. He was also a keen angler. He died in St Andrews on 26 April 1997.



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