AmieLearmonth67 at 03:39, 2 May 2026

2026-05-02T03:39:41Z

New page

{{Short description|British engineer, explorer, military officer and cartographer}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2021}}
{{Infobox military person
|name= Sir James Macdonald
|image= James Ronald Leslie Macdonald c1898.png
|image_size=
|alt=
|nickname=
|birth_date= {{birth date|1862|02|08|df=y}}
|birth_place= [[Rajamundry]], [[Madras Presidency]], [[British India]]<ref>{{cite web|title=James Ronald Leslie Macdonald, 8 Feb 1862; citing reference v 43 p 18, FHL microfilm 521852|url=https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/FG4B-KZB|work=India, Births and Baptisms, 1786–1947|publisher=Familysearch|access-date=27 January 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite work|title=Parish: New Machar; ED: 4; Page: 5; Line: 3; Roll: CSSCT1871_41. Source Information: Ancestry.com. 1871 Scotland Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2007. Original data: Scotland. 1871 Scotland Census. Reels 1–191. General Register Office for Scotland, Edinburgh, Scotland.}}</ref>
|death_date= {{Death date and age|1927|06|27|1862|02|08|df=y}}
|death_place= [[Bournemouth]], England
|burial_place=
|allegiance= United Kingdom
|branch= [[British Army]]
|service_years= 1882–1912
|rank= [[Major general (United Kingdom)|Major General]]
|unit=
|commands=
|battles= [[Mahdist War]] [[Second Boer War]] [[Boxer Rebellion]] [[British Expedition to Tibet|Tibetan expedition]]
|awards= [[Knight Commander of the Order of the Star of India]] [[Knight Commander of the Order of the Indian Empire]] [[Companion of the Order of the Bath]]
|relation=
|other_work=
}}
[[Major general (United Kingdom)|Major General]] '''Sir James Ronald Leslie Macdonald''', {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100|sep=,|KCSI|KCIE|CB|DL|FRGS}} (8 February 1862 – 27 June 1927) was a British engineer, explorer, military officer and [[Cartography|cartographer]]. Born in the [[Madras Presidency]], he was a balloon observer as a young man, surveyed for railways in [[British India]] and [[East Africa]], explored the [[upper Nile region]], commanded balloon sections during the [[Second Boer War]] and [[Boxer Rebellion]] and led the [[British expedition to Tibet]] in 1903–1904.

==Early career==
Macdonald was born on 8 February 1862 in [[Rajahmundry]] in the Madras Presidency, India, the son of Surgeon-Major James Macdonald (1828–1906) of Aberdeen and Margaret Helen Leslie ''née'' Collie (1841–1876); his younger sister was the Egyptologist and archaeologist [[Nora Griffith]]. He was educated at [[Aberdeen Grammar School]] and the [[University of Aberdeen]].{{sfn|Macdonald|Pringle|1892}}
He passed through the [[Royal Military Academy, Woolwich]] and was gazetted as a lieutenant to the [[Royal Engineers]] in February 1882.{{sfn|Geographical Journal 1927}}<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=25082|page=1065|date=10 March 1882}}</ref>

As a lieutenant, on 15 May 1885, Macdonald was appointed to the corps of Bengal Sappers and Miners, Torpedo service, [[Calcutta]] on special duty as a balloon photographer.{{sfn|India Office 1888}} He served in the Hazara campaign of 1888, and also working in the Indian railway organization.{{sfn|Geographical Journal 1927}} Macdonald had spent seven years in service in India and was in Bombay in 1891 ready to embark for England on leave when he was offered the job of Chief Engineer of "the proposed railway survey from Mombasa to the [[Lake Victoria|Victoria]] [[Nyanza Province|Nyanza]]". He accepted, and continued to England to find out what would be involved.{{sfn|NY Times 1897}} In November 1891 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society.<ref>{{cite journal|url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.32106015214775&view=1up&seq=773|title=Second Meeting, 23rd November, 1891. Election of Fellows|journal=Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society|year=1891|volume=13|page=731}}</ref>

==Uganda railway==
The [[Imperial British East Africa Company]] (IBEA Co) commission was to survey a railway route from [[Mombasa]] on the Indian Ocean to Port Florence on the shores of [[Lake Victoria]], roughly following the existing caravan route.{{sfn|Maina|Oboka|Makong'o|2004|pp=78}} The Survey began in December 1891, and took more than a year.{{sfn|Nicholls|2005|pp=17–18}} Macdonald encountered many difficulties in his survey of 27,000 miles of possible route for the railway including sickness, attacks by ants, bees, lions and elephants, formidable physical obstacles and hostile Africans. All these took their toll on his carriers and other followers.{{sfn|Gann|Duignan|1978|pp=326}}

The survey's findings confirmed that the caravan route to the [[Great Rift Valley, Kenya|Great Rift Valley]] was the best path for the line, followed by the easiest gradient to be found over the [[Mau Escarpment]] and down to Lake Victoria. Macdonald and [[John Wallace Pringle]], his second in command, recommended construction of a three-foot six-inch gauge railway. They suggested that Kikuyuland would be a suitable place for whites to live, and their civilizing effect would drive out slavery, but the railway was needed to give access to the new colony.{{sfn|Nicholls|2005|pp=18}} The IBEA Co did not have enough money to undertake construction before handing over the protectorate to the British government in 1895.{{sfn|Maina|Oboka|Makong'o|2004|pp=78}} Construction of the line began in 1895 under the direction of George Whitehouse, a young English engineer.{{sfn|Ellis|2001|pp=69}}
[[File:Africaorientalbritanica1895-1896.PNG|thumb|300px|British East Africa 1895–1896. The Nile runs northwest from Lake Victoria to Lake Albert, then north into Sudan]]
While conducting the survey, Macdonald had been favorably impressed by the intelligent and sophisticated [[Baganda people]] living to the north of the lake.{{sfn|Mozer}}
In May 1893 Macdonald was appointed Acting British Commissioner of the Uganda Protectorate by General [[Gerald Herbert Portal]] with directions to stay away from the internal affairs of [[Buganda]].{{sfn|Okoth|2006|pp=188}} He accordingly withdrew all the Sudanese troops from the west of the country.{{sfn|Ingham|1975|pp=77}}
In 1894 he was chief Staff Officer of an expedition to the neighboring kingdom of [[Bunyoro]], now in northern Uganda.{{sfn|Sharf|2005|pp=13}} Later he was posted back to India.{{sfn|Geographical Journal 1927}}

==Nile expedition==
In 1897 Macdonald was in London when he was appointed leader of another expedition to Uganda, ostensibly to review the northern boundaries.{{sfn|Sharf|2005|pp=13}}
Although Uganda had been declared a British Protectorate the British were concerned that France or Italy would claim some of the unoccupied territory.{{sfn|Naval & Military Press}} General [[Herbert Kitchener]] was advancing up the Nile towards [[Khartoum]], which he would capture at the [[Battle of Omdurman]] on 2 September 1898. However, a French column under [[Jean-Baptiste Marchand]] was striking across Africa from [[Senegal]] to [[Fashoda]], south of Khartoum on the Nile, and would get there well before Kitchener. Macdonald's instructions were to reach Fashoda first.{{sfn|Collins|1996|pp=59}}

The expedition's officers reached Mombasa in July 1897. After moving inland to a base camp at Ngara Nyuki, in September the force was divided into three columns. Captain Herbert H. Austin would lead 300 men north to uncover the source of the [[Juba River]], thought to be connected with [[Lake Rudolph]]. The second column, under Macdonald, would go northwest to the Nile and then downstream to [[Fashoda]], arriving there before the French. A third column would supply the first two.
However these plans were thrown into disarray when the escort of [[Nubian people|Nubian]] troops from [[Sudan]] deserted and fled to Lake Victoria.{{sfn|Sharf|2005|pp=16}}

The Nubian troops had been the Egyptian garrison of [[Equatoria]] in the south of Sudan under the leadership of [[Emin Pasha]]. In 1885 they were threatened by the forces of [[Muhammad Ahmad]], the self-proclaimed [[Mahdi]] whom Kitchener was now preparing to attack, and retreated south to Lake Albert. Emin was "rescued" in 1888 by [[Henry Morton Stanley]]. With nowhere else to go, the Nubians had accepted the offer of Captain [[Frederick Lugard]] to sign up with the British in 1891, but over the years they had accumulated many grievances.{{sfn|Collins|1996|pp=59}} Macdonald spent the next seven months trying to suppress their mutiny, finally handing over responsibility for this task in May 1898 to troops that had been dispatched from India.{{sfn|Sharf|2005|pp=17}}After the mutiny was put down under the leadership of the Protectorate consul-general [[George Wilson (Chief Colonial Secretary of Uganda)|George Wilson CB]], Macdonald recommended retaining a force of Indians in the country on the basis that the Sudanese troops could be useful, but only if there was an independent body of sepoys.{{sfn|Metcalf|2008|pp=212}}

By the end of May 1898, Macdonald decided he did not have enough people or supplies to reach his original objective of Fashoda. Instead, his column would aim for [[Lado, Sudan|Lado]], further south on the Nile, while Austin's column would pursue its original objective of exploring around [[Lake Rudolf]].{{sfn|Sharf|2005|pp=17}}
On the route to Lado Macdonald's column passed through [[Lotuko people|Lotuko]] country in what is now the [[Eastern Equatoria]] state of South Sudan, where he was given a friendly reception by the Lotuko chief Lomoro Xujang.{{sfn|Hill|1967|pp=216}} Macdonald saw a resemblance between the [[Maasai people]] and the Lotuko, and for this reason later recommended incorporation of the Lotuko lands into Uganda.{{sfn|Simonse|1992|pp=83}}

Both of Macdonald's columns managed to return to Mombasa by December 1898, having completed their revised tasks, and the force was disbanded early in 1899.{{sfn|Sharf|2005|pp=17}} This was one of the last incidents in the [[Scramble for Africa]], in which almost the entire continent was brought under European rule.{{sfn|Naval & Military Press}} He was appointed a Companion of the [[Order of the Bath]] (CB) in the [[1900 New Year Honours]] list on 1 January 1900<ref>{{Cite newspaper The Times |title=New Year Honours |date=1 January 1900 |page=9 |issue=36027}}</ref> (the order was gazetted on 16 January 1900),<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=27154 |date=16 January 1900 |page=285}}</ref> and invested by [[Queen Victoria]] at [[Windsor Castle]] on 1 March 1900.<ref>{{Cite newspaper The Times |title=Court Circular|date=2 March 1900 |page=6 |issue=36079}}</ref>

==Interlude==
[[File:QF 4.7 inch field guns Boer War LOC 3a48781.jpg|thumb|British artillery during Boer War – 4.7 inch field guns]]
Macdonald had become a fellow of the [[Royal Geographical Society]] in 1891, and gave an account of his African Expedition to the society at a meeting in June 1899.{{sfn|Geographical Journal 1927}} He was next posted to [[South Africa]], where he was responsible for introducing most of the new sections of balloon observers, which made a significant contribution to British progress in the [[Second Boer War]].{{sfn|Driver|1997|pp=177}} In this war, the British required over 450,000 men to subdue settlers of Dutch origin who were seeking to preserve their independence. The Boer forces never numbered more than 60,000.{{sfn|Fremont-Barnes|2003|pp=7}}
The war introduced innovations such as the field telephone, searchlights and barbed wire. Creeping artillery barrages supported infantry advances against entrenched opponents armed with rifles and machine guns, a technique later developed to the extreme during the [[First World War]].{{sfn|Fremont-Barnes|2003|pp=8–9}}

Macdonald left in August 1900 to take up the command of the fourth Balloon section with the British imperial troops fighting the [[Boxer Rebellion]] in China.{{sfn|Driver|1997|pp=177}} He was then appointed Director of Railways for the China expeditionary force.{{sfn|Macdonald|Pringle|1892}} The fighting in China was the result of growing assertiveness by European powers in China over trade, religion and control of territory during the dying days of the Manchu [[Qing Dynasty]], aggravated by poverty due to harvest failures. A widespread popular uprising led to a siege of Europeans in [[Beijing]]. The European colonial powers cooperated in military action to suppress the uprising and imposed harsh indemnities and conditions.{{sfn|Bodin|1979|pp=1ff}} From China, Macdonald was posted to [[Mauritius]] as general officer commanding later in 1900.{{sfn|Macdonald|Pringle|1892}}

==Tibet expedition==
[[File:FrancisYounghusband.jpg|thumb|[[Francis Younghusband]]]]
In 1903 the British were suspicious of the intentions of the [[Russian Empire]] in the lands bordering India. As a demonstration of strength, the British determined to send a diplomatic and trade mission to [[Tibet]] under Colonel [[Francis Younghusband]]. Originally peaceful, the project was transformed into an armed invasion when the Tibetans refused to accept the mission.{{sfn|Waddell|2007|pp=55–56}} In October 1903 the strength of the mission's escort was brought up to a brigade with about 2,500 British and Indian troops under Macdonald, who had been temporarily promoted from Colonel to Brigadier-General.{{Citation needed|date=December 2011}} He was instructed to avoid aggression and act in a strictly defensive role as the mission advanced into Tibet to [[Gyantse]] and occupied the [[Chumbi valley]].{{sfn|Waddell|2007|pp=58–59}}
10,000 unskilled laborers were attached to the expedition.{{sfn|Grunfeld|1996|pp=56}}

The British army left [[Sikkim]] on 11 December 1903, and occupied Phari at the northern end of the 60-mile long Chumbi Valley on 22 December. They reached Tuna in mid-January and remained there until the end of March hoping to negotiate with the Tibetans.{{sfn|Raugh|2004|pp=321}} On 31 March the force advanced, soon coming in contact with a force of about 3,000 Tibetans armed with antique matchlock muskets defending the Guru (or Gura) Pass on the road to Gyantse, about {{convert|15000|ft|m}} above sea level. Macdonald insisted that the Tibetans surrender their arms, a brawl broke out, the British opened fire and the Tibetans were forced to retreat leaving 600–700 dead. The British-led troops had superior discipline and greatly superior weapons including machine guns. The engagement was completely one-sided and the British themselves expressed disgust with the slaughter of their helpless opponents. About 200 Tibetan wounded were carried to makeshift hospitals. Many had been shot in the back.{{sfn|Waddell|2007|pp=154ff}}

The advance continued, reaching the original destination of Gyantse on 12 April 1904. Macdonald then took half the force back 150 miles to [[New Chumbi]] to check communications and arrangements for supply, earning the nickname "Retiring Mac".{{sfn|Raugh|2004|pp=322}} There may have been tensions between MacDonald as military leader, backed by [[Herbert Kitchener]], and the younger and more junior Younghusband as political leader, backed by [[George Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston|George Curzon]]. One of the officers in the expedition thought that Macdonald was much more timid than his reputation had led him to expect, perhaps due to illness.{{sfn|Gould|1999|pp=169}} Younghusband was so exasperated by Macdonald's cautious approach that he twice threatened to resign. However, caution may have been justified by the extremely challenging terrain and climate, with logistical problems increasing exponentially as the supply chain lengthened.{{sfn|Meyer|Brysac|2006|pp=298}} According to one account, {{convert|40000|lb|kg}} of supplies were needed daily.{{sfn|Grunfeld|1996|pp=56}}
[[File:Gyantse Fortress.jpg|thumb|right|The Gyantse Dzong today]]
In Macdonald's absence, Younghusband authorized more aggressive action. He achieved some tactical successes, but the situation remained confused. On the grounds of having exceeded his authority, Younghusband was made subordinate to Macdonald, returning to New Chumbi to report to Macdonald on 10 June 1904. The reinforced escort advanced again, reaching the powerful fortress of [[Gyantse Dzong]] by 24 June 1904.{{sfn|Raugh|2004|pp=322}} On 6 July a breach was made in the fortress walls and troops stormed in, forcing the Tibetans to abandon the position. Macdonald had succeeded in his mission of clearing the road, and handed over command to Younghusband for the advance to [[Lhasa]].{{sfn|Waddell|2007|pp=265ff}} He received a [[K.C.I.E.]] (Knight Commander of the Indian Empire) decoration for his services in Tibet.{{sfn|Geographical Journal 1927}}

==Later life==
Macdonald, promoted in January 1905 to substantive colonel and temporary brigadier general in order to command a brigade in India,<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=27786|page=2975|date=21 April 1905}}</ref> was the general officer commanding in Mauritius from 1900 until he retired from active service in 1912.{{sfn|Macdonald|Pringle|1892}}{{sfn|Geographical Journal 1927}} On 22 July 1908 the [[University of Aberdeen]] conferred an honorary decree in the Faculty of Law on Macdonald.{{sfn|British Medical Journal 1908}}

Macdonald, appointed [[colonel commandant]] of the Royal Engineers in July 1924,<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=32967|page=6353|date=22 August 1924}}</ref> died on 27 June 1927 in [[Bournemouth]], Hampshire, England at the age of 65.{{sfn|Encyclopædia Britannica}}

==Bibliography==
*{{cite journal|author=Macdonald, James|title=East central African customs|journal=The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland|volume=22|year=1893|pages=99–122|doi=10.2307/2842114|jstor=2842114|url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=umn.31951p00542690v&view=1up&seq=123|url-access=subscription|doi-access=free}}
*{{cite book |title=Soldiering and surveying in British East Africa, 1891–1894|author=Macdonald, James Ronald Leslie|publisher=Dawsons of Pall Mall|pages=xvi+333 |year=1897 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-o4SAAAAYAAJ}}
*{{cite journal|author=MacDonald, James R. L.|title=Journeys to the North of Uganda. I.|journal=The Geographical Journal|volume=14|issue=2|year=1899|pages=129–148|doi=10.2307/1774333|jstor=1774333|bibcode=1899GeogJ..14..129M |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.$b231033&view=1up&seq=145&q1=uganda}}

==See also==
* [[Scramble for Africa]]
* [[Fashoda incident]]
* [[The Great Game]]

==References==
{{reflist |colwidth=30em}}
'''Sources'''
{{refbegin}}
*{{cite book
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2YleP1OP4HsC
|title=The Boxer Rebellion
|last=Bodin
|first=Lynn
|publisher=Osprey Publishing
|year=1979
|isbn=978-0-85045-335-5
}}{{Dead link|date=August 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}
*{{cite journal
|ref={{harvid|British Medical Journal 1908}}
|url=http://www.bmj.com/content/2/2483/294.2.extract
|title=Aberdeen
|journal=British Medical Journal
|date=1 August 1908
|volume=2
|issue=2483
|pages=294
|doi=10.1136/bmj.2.2483.294-a
|s2cid=220216594
|access-date=2011-07-08
|url-access=subscription
}}
*Carrington, Michael. Officers Gentlemen and Thieves: The Looting of Monasteries during the 1903/4 Younghusband Mission to Tibet, Modern Asian Studies 37, 1 (2003), PP 81–109.
*{{cite book
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PEY-E5r-iMUC&pg=PA59
|title=The waters of the Nile: hydropolitics and the Joglei Canal, 1900–1988
|last=Collins
|first=Robert O.
|publisher=Markus Wiener Publishers
|year=1996
|isbn=978-1-55876-099-8
}}
*{{cite book
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cbrA5NJp2JMC&pg=PA177
|title=The birth of military aviation: Britain, 1903–1914
|last=Driver
|first=Hugh
|publisher=Boydell & Brewer Ltd
|year=1997
|isbn=978-0-86193-234-4
}}
*{{cite book
|url=https://archive.org/details/verticalmarginsm0000elli
|url-access=registration
|page=[https://archive.org/details/verticalmarginsm0000elli/page/69 69]
|title=Vertical margins: mountaineering and the landscapes of neoimperialism
|last=Ellis
|first=Reuben J.
|publisher=Univ of Wisconsin Press
|year=2001
|isbn=978-0-299-17004-2
}}
*{{cite web
|url=http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/354123/Sir-James-Ronald-Leslie-Macdonald
|title=Sir James Ronald Leslie Macdonald
|author=Encyclopædia Britannica
|access-date=2011-07-08
}}
*{{cite book
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=h9wbSjpIMPwC
|title=The Boer War 1899–1902
|first=Gregory
|last=Fremont-Barnes
|publisher=Osprey Publishing
|year=2003
|isbn=978-1-84176-396-5
}}{{Dead link|date=April 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}
*{{cite book
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vM8NAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA326
|title=The rulers of British Africa, 1870–1914
|last1=Gann
|first1=Lewis H.
|last2=Duignan
|first2=Peter
|publisher=Routledge
|year=1978
|isbn=978-0-85664-771-0
}}
*{{cite journal |ref={{harvid|Geographical Journal 1927}}
|jstor=1783519
|title=Major-General Sir J.R.L. Macdonald
|journal=Geographical Journal |volume=70 |issue=5 |pages=509–511
|date=November 1927
|publisher=Royal Geographical Society|last1=Gregory
|first1=J. W.
|doi=10.2307/1783519
}}
*{{cite book
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6kU6VuDVWjoC&pg=PA169
|title=Imperial warriors: Britain and the Gurkhas
|last=Gould
|first=Tony
|publisher=Granta Books
|year=1999
|isbn=978-1-86207-365-4
}}
*{{cite book
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=odyxWQGD2eoC&pg=PA56
|title=The making of modern Tibet
|last=Grunfeld
|first=A. Tom
|publisher=M.E. Sharpe
|year=1996
|isbn=978-1-56324-714-9
}}
*{{cite book
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QS_GYMeSzRMC&pg=PA216
|title=A biographical dictionary of the Sudan
|last=Hill
|first=Richard Leslie
|publisher=Routledge
|year=1967
|isbn=978-0-7146-1037-5
}}
*{{cite book
|ref={{harvid|India Office 1888}}
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yRAbAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA320
|title=The India office and Burma office list
|author=India Office
|year=1888
}}
*{{cite book
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=y7gOAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA77
|title=The kingdom of Toro in Uganda
|last=Ingham
|first=Kenneth
|publisher=Taylor & Francis
|year=1975
|isbn=978-0-416-80210-8
}}
*{{cite web
|url=http://janus.lib.cam.ac.uk/db/node.xsp?id=EAD%2FGBR%2F0115%2FRCMS%20113%2F45
|last1=Macdonald
|first1=James Ronald Leslie
|last2=Pringle
|first2=John Wallace
|publisher=Janus
|title=Uganda Railway Survey Diaries
|year=1892
|access-date=2011-07-11
|archive-date=12 August 2011
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110812051819/http://janus.lib.cam.ac.uk/db/node.xsp?id=EAD%2FGBR%2F0115%2FRCMS%20113%2F45
|url-status=dead
}}
*{{cite book
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XVPM53_gPP4C&pg=PA78
|title=History and Government Form 2
|last1=Maina
|first1=Ephalina
|last2=Oboka
|first2=Wycliffe
|last3=Makong'o
|first3=Julius
|publisher=East African Publishers
|year=2004
|isbn=978-9966-25-333-0
}}
*{{cite book
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ViXYx6KU5pAC&pg=PA121
|title=Imperial Connections: India in the Indian Ocean Arena, 1860–1920
|last=Metcalf
|first=Thomas R.
|publisher=University of California Press
|year=2008
|isbn=978-0-520-25805-1
}}
*{{cite book
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ssv-GONnxTsC&pg=PA298
|title=Tournament of Shadows: The Great Game and the Race for Empire in Central Asia
|last1=Meyer
|first1=Karl Ernest
|last2=Brysac
|first2=Shareen Blair
|publisher=Basic Books
|year=2006
|isbn=978-0-465-04576-1
}}{{Dead link|date=August 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}
*{{cite web
|url=http://www.ibike.org/africaguide/uganda.htm
|title=Uganda: Bicycle Tour Travel Guide
|last=Mozer
|first=David
|publisher=International Bicycle Fund
|access-date=2011-07-08
}}
*{{cite web
|url=http://www.naval-military-press.com/with-macdonald-in-uganda-a-narrative-account-of-the-uganda-mutiny-and-macdonald-expedition-in-the-uganda_protectorate-and-territories-to-the-north.html
|title=WITH MACDONALD IN UGANDA A Narrative Account of the Uganda Mutiny and Macdonald Expedition in the Uganda Protectorate and Territories to the North
|author=Naval & Military Press
|access-date=2011-07-08
|archive-date=26 September 2011
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110926235851/http://www.naval-military-press.com/with-macdonald-in-uganda-a-narrative-account-of-the-uganda-mutiny-and-macdonald-expedition-in-the-uganda_protectorate-and-territories-to-the-north.html
|url-status=dead
}}
*{{cite book
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7XQdt37BJ6cC&pg=PA17
|title=Red strangers: the white tribe of Kenya
|last=Nicholls
|first=Christine Stephanie
|publisher=Timewell Press
|year=2005
|isbn=978-1-85725-206-4
}}
*{{cite journal
|ref={{harvid|NY Times 1897}}
|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1897/04/24/102059481.pdf
|journal=[[The New York Times]]
|title=Africa: Surveying and fighting in that country in recent years
|date=24 April 1897
|access-date=2011-07-08
}}
*{{cite book
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6knAMseFPpIC&pg=PA188
|title=A History of Africa: African societies and the establishment of colonial rule, 1800–1915
|last=Okoth
|first=Assa
|publisher=East African Publishers
|year=2006
|isbn=978-9966-25-357-6
}}
*{{cite book
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HvE_Pa_ZlfsC&pg=PA321
|title=The Victorians at war, 1815–1914: an encyclopedia of British military history
|last=Raugh
|first=Harold E.
|publisher=ABC-CLIO
|year=2004
|isbn=978-1-57607-925-6
}}
*{{cite book
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=w3tad2NWb98C&pg=PA13
|title=Expedition from Uganda to Abyssinia (1898): the diary of Lieutenant R.G.T. Bright with annotations and introductory text
|last=Sharf
|first=Frederic A.
|publisher=Tsehai Publishers
|year=2005
|isbn=978-1-59907-007-0
}}
*{{cite book
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=o8bSiOssOLgC&pg=PA83
|title=Kings of disaster: dualism, centralism, and the scapegoat king in southeastern Sudan
|last=Simonse
|first=Simon
|publisher=BRILL
|year=1992
|isbn=978-90-04-09560-1
}}
*{{cite book
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9MzeIBeoCdQC&pg=PA59
|title=Lhasa and Its Mysteries: With a Record of the Expedition of 1903–1904
|last=Waddell
|first=Laurence A.
|publisher=Cosimo
|year=2007
|isbn=978-1-60206-724-0
}}
{{refend}}

==Further reading==
*{{cite book
|title=With Macdonald in Uganda: a narrative account of the Uganda mutiny and Macdonald expedition in the Uganda Protectorate and the territories to the north
|author=Austin, Herbert Henry 1868–1937
|pages=xiv+314
|publisher=Edward Arnold, London
|year=1903
|url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/008585367}}
* William John Ottley (Brevet-Major 34th Sikh Pioneers): [https://archive.org/stream/withmountedinfan00ottlrich#page/n9/mode/2up W''ith mounted infantry in Tibet'']. Publisher: Smith, Elder & Co. London, 1906
* Sir Francis Edward Younghusband: [https://archive.org/stream/indiatibethistor00younrich#page/n3/mode/2up India and Tibet; a history of the relations which have subsisted between the two countries from the time of Warren Hastings to 1910; with a particular account of the mission to Lhasa of 1904]. Publisher: J. Murray London, 1910

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Macdonald, James Ronald Leslie}}
[[Category:1862 births]]
[[Category:1927 deaths]]
[[Category:19th-century British explorers]]
[[Category:19th-century Scottish people]]
[[Category:Military personnel from Aberdeen]]
[[Category:People educated at Aberdeen Grammar School]]
[[Category:Alumni of the University of Aberdeen]]
[[Category:19th century in Uganda]]
[[Category:Knights Commander of the Order of the Indian Empire]]
[[Category:British military personnel of the British expedition to Tibet]]
[[Category:Scottish civil engineers]]
[[Category:Scottish aviators]]
[[Category:British balloonists]]
[[Category:Scottish cartographers]]
[[Category:Scottish geographers]]
[[Category:Scottish explorers]]
[[Category:Royal Engineers officers]]
[[Category:Scottish surveyors]]
[[Category:Scottish knights]]
[[Category:Deputy lieutenants of Aberdeen]]
[[Category:British people in British India]]
[[Category:Companions of the Order of the Bath]]
[[Category:Knights Commander of the Order of the Star of India]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Royal Geographical Society]]
[[Category:People from the Madras Presidency]]
[[Category:Writers from Rajahmundry]]

James Macdonald British Army officer - Revision history

AmieLearmonth67 at 03:39, 2 May 2026