[1] He was born in Westminster, London and died at Bathford, Somerset.
[2] He himself was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Fife division of the Royal Artillery in 1879.
[3] In 1883, he was promoted from lieutenant to captain in the fourth brigade of the Scottish Division of the Royal Artillery.
[5][6] MacDonald played club cricket in the Bath area of Somerset in the 1890s.
MacDonald married Lilian Margaret Coke of Brimington Hall, Derbyshire in 1887 and settled at Bathford, near Bath.