Lt. Alexander Duncan McDonald was born in Ogdensburg, N.Y., USA, in December 1893.
A bank clerk by trade when he signed on, Alexander attested into the 154th Battalion on March 12th, 1916, having served with the Battalion previously.
One of 103 men of the 154th to be transferred to the 4th CMR in November, 1916. Alexander joined the regiment in the field on November 22nd, at a time when the 4th CMR were rotating on 4 days in and out of the front line at Ecurie, in France, and undergoing training and refit following heavy and successful action at Regina Trench in October.
Lt. Donald was specifically mentioned a number of times in the regiment's official history, by S. G. Bennett, although a night patrol which took prisoners in the dispersal of an enemy patrol on June 6th, 1917, was wrongly attributed to him (the confusion being made with Lt. MacDowell).
On August 9th, 1918, with the Germans in full retreat and the attacking force in a fluid and ever changing state, the 8th Brigade rendezvoused near Demuin and at 8am were under orders, collectively under the 3rd Canadian Division, to move forward until it engaged the enemy. That order was subsequently cancelled as was a revised order to put them in a woodland south-east of Demuin.
However, a further order for the 75th Battalion to capture the village of Le Quesnel, 25km south-east of Amiens, was confirmed, with the 4th CMR to pass through the attacking 75th on completion of the capture and to move on to take Folies. Lt. McDonald, "B" Company commander was to be in close support. On reaching Le Quesnel, with "A" and "C" companies moving around the north of the village and McDonald's "C" Company passing through the middle, the village came under heavy German shelling. At the head of his company, Lt. McDonald led the march down the main street of the town and was killed instantly when a splinter from an exploding shell hit him in the head.
Lt. Alexander McDonald lies at rest in Le Quesnel Community Cemetery with two other men of the 4th CMR: Capt. Chaplain William Davis and CSM Lawrence Pridham (both killed the same day)
Represented by Bart Blachford.
Lt. McDonald's headstone image can be viewed at www.findagrave.com.
Biography excerpt courtesy of 4cmr.com.