Seaman DONALD MACARTHUR
Last address in Lewis: 6 Borrowston,
Son of Duncan and Catherine Macarthur, of 6, Borriston, Carloway
Husband of Maggie Macarthur, of 6, Borriston, Carloway, Stornoway,
Ross-shire.
Service unit: Royal Naval Reserve, HM Submarine M.21
Service number: 1904/D
Date of birth: 10 November 1876
Date of death: 20 October 1918 at the age of 41
Died in mining of ship
Memorial: Chatham Naval Memorial, panel 30
Local memorial: Carloway
Donald appears in the 1891 census at 6 Borrowston, aged 15, the son of Duncan (42) and Cathrine (38) and brother of Malcolm (13), Norman (11), John (9), Finlay (6), Roderick (3) and Margaret (1).
His brothers Kenneth and Finlay both served in the Merchant Navy and survived the war.
Stornoway Gazette, 8 November 1918
Shawbost was plunged in grief when it was known that another of our lads
in blue had made the supreme sacrifice in defence of his King, home and
country. He was Donald Macarthur (of Borriston) who was married and
settled in New Shawbost. He was with us on three weeks' leave quite
recently. It is worthy of note that when Macarthur and his chum arrived
at their base off leave, a day before their time, their ship was just
leaving for sea, and if they had waited the expiration of their leave,
the ship would have proceeded to sea without them. But such are the ways
of Providence, and Macarthur laid down his life as the result of an
enemy mine by which his ship was blown up just outside Zeebrugge. His
chum, John Macleod RNR, who arrived back to Shawbost on Saturday, is one
of the survivors and bore with personal grief the sorrowful
intelligence of Macarthur's tale. The painful feelings of the whole
community go out to Mrs Macarthur and her two children in their
irrepairable loss of husband and father, who died that others might
live.
