11549: James Macdonald
Seumas Alasdair Sheumais
James Macdonald (1896-1964) was a son of Alexander and Isabella Macdonald, 9 Habost. The family later moved to 1 Habost.
He was educated at Kershader School until leaving at the age of 14 years when he went to work at Manor Farm, Stornoway.
Later James became a fisherman on Stornoway registered fishing boats and on December 30, 1913 he enrolled in the Royal Naval Reserve Service Number A5463. His record indicates that he was 5ft 6¼ in tall with blue eyes a fresh complexion, a scar below his left eye and another at the point of his third finger. He was Mobilised on August 3, 1914 and served as a Leading Seaman in the Royal Navy in the First World War. Based at HMS HMS Gunner, HMS Pekin, HMSVictory, HMS Pembroke, HMS Excellent and aboard HMS Adequate, HMS Brilliant, HMS Cormorant, HMS Cyclops, HMS Gibralter, HMS Morven and HMS Zaria. His name is mentioned in Loyal Lewis: Roll of Honour 1914-18.
After the war, like most of his contemporaries, he went to sea. After a while he came ashore to work in Edinburgh. While there he answered an advertisement for a commercial traveler for a job with J & J Todd, Wholesale Provision Merchant, Leith for work in Lewis. He started his Commission Agency with a bicycle but soon obtained a car. The firm then built a new store at 10 Francis Street, Stornoway (the premises subsequently occupied by the Stornoway Gazette).
As a native of the Lochs area of the island James was conversant with the making of Harris Tweed, and so he started a business as a Harris Tweed small producer, buying his yarn supplies from the existing spinners in Stornoway and on the mainland.
In the late 1920s James and his boss, Mr Archer from Leith, took over the disused canning factory left by Lord Leverhulme and installed landing spinning and finishing machinery and campaigned for the amending of the Orb Harris Tweed trade mark to include mill spun yarn. The Orb mark was amended in 1933 and James' mill was the only one that had furnished machinery. He left Stornoway in the 1940s and built another large tweed mill in Oban.
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Details
- Record Type:
- Person
- Also Known As:
- Jimmy Todd
- Date Of Birth:
- 27 Dec 1895
- Date of Death:
- 1964
- Gender:
- Male
- Brothers Keeper Reference:
- CEP 1582
- Occupation:
- Royal Navy; Fisherman; Royal Naval Reservist; Tweed Mill Owner
- Record Maintained by:
- CEP
Related Media
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Kershader School, Coronation 1937