Fascinating! At the battle of Rorke's Drift, Colour-Sargent Bourne was also offered a VC or a commission, and chose the latter. If you watch the end of Zulu where the VC awards a read out by Richard Burton, he is conspicuously missing - that's why. It was a canny move, as NCO's were not considered "gentlemen" even in those days. Good on Skinner to have stuck by MacDonald.
That's a lovely arrrangement! Here's a fiddle or flute arrangement if anyone would like sheet music or a backing track for this lovely tune: musescore.com/user/643986/scores/5517663 "Hector the Hero" is a popular fiddle tune, a classic lament composed by the great Scottish composer James Scott Skinner in 1903. It laments the death by coerced suicide of Sir Hector ("Fighting Mac") MacDonald, a popular war hero in Scotland and England, who had been the Commander-in-Chief of British forces in Ceylon. MacDonald was a brilliant military strategist, an accomplished commander, and a polymath -- he spoke Hindustani, Urdu, Pushtu, Arabic, French, and English as well as his native Gaelic. At the time of his death he was the most popular and widely known war hero in Brittain, having been knighted for his service in the Second Boer War. MacDonald committed suicide in 1903 instead of facing a court martial following accusations of homosexual activity with the local Sinhalese. The scandal reaffirmed his heroic status among his native Scots, who understood that a similar scandal involving any of the aristocratic English officers would have been hushed up. They understood too that MacDonald was facing charges not so much for his perceived crime, but because as a Scot he had always been an outsider in the British military. Whatever the merit of charges of homosexuality, they were brought by a jealous British officer corps angered by MacDonald's real crime, that of being a low-born Scott who had risin through the ranks on merit alone, and who treated the local Sinhalese as equals. His funeral in Edinburgh was attended by 30,000 countrymen. Immediately after, the British government destroyed all records of the case against him, declared that there had been no basis for the charges, and declared him a glorious and unparalleled hero. See the Wikipedia article for a short biography of this amazing hero of Scotland.
Piper Mccoy hi piper, my paternal great grandfather was a first cousin to Sir Hector.. any chance we can get in contact.. cheers Andrew Macdonald, Australia..
Very informative ,,,,,,still one of the best tunes around ,,,,,,NORTH SEA GAS ,,,,do a wonderful rendition of the song
God bless our general He chorus MacDonald. Always celebrated in the world
Enjoyed the story with the music thanx
Fascinating! At the battle of Rorke's Drift, Colour-Sargent Bourne was also offered a VC or a commission, and chose the latter. If you watch the end of Zulu where the VC awards a read out by Richard Burton, he is conspicuously missing - that's why. It was a canny move, as NCO's were not considered "gentlemen" even in those days. Good on Skinner to have stuck by MacDonald.
He's a relative of mine :)
That's a lovely arrrangement! Here's a fiddle or flute arrangement if anyone would like sheet music or a backing track for this lovely tune: musescore.com/user/643986/scores/5517663
"Hector the Hero" is a popular fiddle tune, a classic lament composed by the great Scottish composer James Scott Skinner in 1903. It laments the death by coerced suicide of Sir Hector ("Fighting Mac") MacDonald, a popular war hero in Scotland and England, who had been the Commander-in-Chief of British forces in Ceylon. MacDonald was a brilliant military strategist, an accomplished commander, and a polymath -- he spoke Hindustani, Urdu, Pushtu, Arabic, French, and English as well as his native Gaelic. At the time of his death he was the most popular and widely known war hero in Brittain, having been knighted for his service in the Second Boer War.
MacDonald committed suicide in 1903 instead of facing a court martial following accusations of homosexual activity with the local Sinhalese.
The scandal reaffirmed his heroic status among his native Scots, who understood that a similar scandal involving any of the aristocratic English officers would have been hushed up. They understood too that MacDonald was facing charges not so much for his perceived crime, but because as a Scot he had always been an outsider in the British military. Whatever the merit of charges of homosexuality, they were brought by a jealous British officer corps angered by MacDonald's real crime, that of being a low-born Scott who had risin through the ranks on merit alone, and who treated the local Sinhalese as equals.
His funeral in Edinburgh was attended by 30,000 countrymen. Immediately after, the British government destroyed all records of the case against him, declared that there had been no basis for the charges, and declared him a glorious and unparalleled hero.
See the Wikipedia article for a short biography of this amazing hero of Scotland.
Great video many thanks. But such a strong fighting man... why top yourself at the first sign of someone calling you a sausage jockey
He was 'told' to take the honourable way out (ie: given the choice of killing himself or being court martialled and imprisoned.
Piper Mccoy hi piper, my paternal great grandfather was a first cousin to Sir Hector.. any chance we can get in contact.. cheers Andrew Macdonald, Australia..
Hi, I live in New Zealand Hector MacDonald is a relative of mine, I'd love to know more about him
This is 2022
Back in those days
Honour was everything
They bastards destroyed Hector's reputation
The British establishment
Thats why
Decided to research family history and found out today he is my Great grandfather's brother. I had no idea