THERE has been much talk in the press and social media in recent days over the phenomenon of trial by media in relation to the case of Alex Salmond.

This pursuit by press is nothing new, and it was happening long before newspapers were invented – public accusation of prominent people by graffiti scribblers was common in ancient Greece and Rome. Sadly, it has only gotten worse as the centuries have moved on.

One of the best documented such cases, in which a salacious newspaper headline caused a famous Scottish soldier to kill himself, was that of Fighting Mac, Major General Sir Hector Archibald MacDonald, KCB, DSO.

Who was this extraordinary man? If anyone exemplifies the heroic Scottish soldier it is surely MacDonald, the son of a crofter who rose through the ranks to become a general only to be destroyed by snobbery and Establishment disdain for a low-born Highlander.

He entered the world in 1853 in an era when most officers still bought their way into the British Army and then paid for promotions, and in which the aristocracy still gained rank simply because they were lords. Hector Archibald MacDonald – he was known to different people as either Hector or Archie and his name was spelled Macdonald and MacDonald, but we will stick to Hector MacDonald – was the son of William MacDonald, a stonemason as well as a crofter, and Ann née Boyd. He had four brothers including William Jnr who would become a Kirk minister and earn the nickname Preaching Mac.

They lived on the croft at Rootfield near Dingwall and grew up as native Gaelic speakers. The boys learned English and received the usual elementary education in a local school before Hector went off to start an apprenticeship as a draper in Dingwall.

MacDonald was already set on a life in the military and, moving to Inverness to work in the Royal Clan Tartan and Tweed Warehouse, he joined the local volunteer rifle regiment, an experience which settled his mind on his future career.

In 1871, MacDonald “forgot” to tell his parents or employers what he was up to and enlisted in the 92nd Gordon Highlanders, then based at Fort George near Inverness. Joining one of the most famous of all Scottish regiments was the making of MacDonald.

By the age of 20 he was already a sergeant. His commanding officer is said to have told him: “Remember that a sergeant in the 92nd is at least equal to a member of Parliament, and I expect you to behave accordingly.”

The regiment was posted to India where MacDonald added to his Gaelic and English languages by adding Hindustani, Urdu and Pashto.

The first official account of his heroism came in 1879 when MacDonald was mentioned in despatches by none other than Lord Roberts, the commander of the British Army in Afghanistan.

The Gordons distinguished themselves in that short Second Afghan War war, and none more so than MacDonald who led a detachment of Highlanders and Sikhs in an engagement with the enemy at Karatiga, the sergeant leading the charge up a steep slope to scatter a force of 2,000 native tribesmen.

At the Battle of Charasia on October 6, 1879, MacDonald was again to the fore as the Gordons made a stunning attack on the flanks of the Afghan army, which promptly broke up in disarray. This time Lord Roberts offered Hector the choice of a Victoria Cross or a commission, and so emerged Second Lieutenant MacDonald who then distinguished himself as a natural leader of men in Roberts’ famous march from Kabul to Kandahar in August, 1880.

The following year saw MacDonald in South Africa in the First Boer War, otherwise known as the Transvaal Rebellion, which Britain comprehensively lost. With the Army under siege everywhere in the Transvaal, he was at the Battle of Majuba Hill on February 27, 1881. MacDonald and his detachment of 20 Gordons held their part of the Hill, but the rest of the British force was killed or captured until MacDonald, too, had to surrender.

Major General Sir George Colley was killed by a marksman and the Boer commander General Joubert sent for MacDonald to identify the dead British leader. Joubert recognized MacDonald’s personal bravery by returning his sword.

Freed after Britain made a humiliating peace with the Boers, MacDonald was able to go home to Scotland for the first time in 12 years. There he met a 15-year-old girl from Edinburgh, Christina Duncan. She was too young to marry but after the penniless MacDonald convinced her family he would soon be a captain, they later married in secret on June 16, 1884.

MacDonald needed to return to the Army however, and telling his wife that he would be away for three months – it was nearer three years – he joined the Gordons’ first battalion in the expedition to relieve General Gordon at Khartoum.

Gordon and his entire garrison were massacred two days before the relief expedition arrived. MacDonald having proved an outstanding leader of men, he was promoted to captain and joined the Egyptian Army where he swiftly trained Sudanese recruits to his own high standards.

While with them he fought in the Battles of Toski and Tokar, and was awarded the Distinguished Service Order for his “training and example” as the London Gazette put it.

By then Christina had borne MacDonald a son, also called Hector, but though their secret marriage was legal in Scotland, she had to go to court to have it made official so as to legitimise their son.

Promoted to major, MacDonald and his Sudanese soldiers captured the town of Dongola in 1896 when the British decided to reconquer Sudan.

MacDonald was now in the thick of the fighting and never more so than the Battle of Omdurman in September, 1898, when his brilliant manoeuvres stopped the Dervish attack in its tracks and turned near-defeat into victory, for which he was loudly praised both in Parliament and in the press.

The Daily Mail’s eyewitness account of the battle reported: “Beneath the strong, square-hewn face you can tell that the brain is working as if packed in ice. He sat solid on his horse, and bent his black brows towards the green flag and the Remingtons.

“He saw everything; knew what to do; knew how to do it; did it...all saw him, and knew that they were being nursed to triumph.”

THE legend of Fighting Mac was now well established and Queen Victoria lionised her favourite soldier, appointing him her aide-de-camp and a colonel in November, 1898. In 1900, and by now a brigadier general, MacDonald was recalled from service in India to take part in the Second Boer War where he commanded the Highland Brigade which had been savaged at the Battle of Magersfontein and suffered the loss of its commander, General Wauchope.

Typically he led from the front as he restored the morale of his troops. Now a major-general, MacDonald could have stayed in the rear but insisted on fighting alongside his men – so much so that he was wounded in the Battle of Paardeberg that was eventually won by the newly-arrived Canadian troops.

MacDonald fought on through the various campaigns in South Africa and in April, 1901, he was awarded a knighthood by King Edward VII who shared his mother’s enthusiasm for Fighting Mac.

After the Second Boer War, MacDonald was sent to take command for the forces in southern India but was then sent to Ceylon, as Sri Lanka was then known.

It was there that a scandal arose, one which would kill the hero. In brief, the local tea planter colony did not take to MacDonald and to be fair, he did not hide his contempt for them. He was military commander of the island but its civilian governor was Colonel Joseph Ridgeway – the mutual antipathy was obvious from the start.

MacDonald like to fraternise with local boys and with the sons of the planters, and from those friendships arose rumours and innuendo about his sexuality.

Eventually a deputation from the English colonists made accusations against MacDonald that was indulging in “inappropriate behavior” with boys as young as 12. Ridgeway ordered MacDonald to leave for London in the hope of avoiding a massive scandal.

“Some, indeed most, of his victims,” he wrote to the army command, “are the sons of the best-known men in the Colony, English and native”. Ridgeway noted that he had persuaded the local press to keep quiet in hopes that “no more mud” would be flung.

Sadly for MacDonald, that suppression did not apply to the American press. He was ordered to return to Ceylon to face a court martial but on the way there he stopped in Paris and on the morning of March 25, 1903, in room 105 of the Regina Hotel, MacDonald read in the New York Herald that he faced “grave charges”. He promptly put a pistol to his head and killed himself.

The best account of the scandal that I have seen was the play Hector, originally So Great A Crime, by David Gooderson which had a nationwide tour in 2015. Steven Duffy as MacDonald and the late Stevie Hannan as Ridgeway brilliantly displayed the mutual incomprehension between Highlander and jealous snob who really was out to destroy the hero, egged on by a pack of equally snobbish English exiles.

MacDonald was buried quietly in Dean Cemetery in Edinburgh, but this man was such a hero to his fellow Scots that 30,000 of them visited his grave in the first weekend. A 100ft high monument to him was erected near Dingwall by public subscription.

There were even myths spread that MacDonald had faked his death and was serving as a general in various armies around the world. None of them were true – Fighting Mac could battle anybody but the rumour-mongers and he did die in Paris.

He had the last word. A Government Commission of inquiry released a report on the tragedy on June 29, 1903: “In reference to the grave charges made against the late Sir Hector MacDonald, we, the appointed and undersigned Commissioners, individually and collectively declare on oath that, after the most careful, minute, and exhaustive inquiry and investigation of the whole circumstances and facts connected with the sudden and unexpected death of the late Sir Hector MacDonald, unanimously and unmistakably find absolutely no reason or crime whatsoever which would create feelings such as would determine suicide, in preference to conviction of any crime affecting the moral and irreproachable character of so brave, so fearless, so glorious and unparalleled a hero: and we firmly believe the cause which gave rise to the inhuman and cruel suggestions of crime were prompted through vulgar feelings of spite and jealousy in his rising to such a high rank of distinction in the British Army: and, while we have taken the most reliable and trustworthy evidence from every accessible and conceivable source, have without hesitation come to the conclusion that there is not visible the slightest particle of truth in foundation of any crime, and we find the late Sir Hector MacDonald has been cruelly assassinated by vile and slandering tongues.

“While honourably acquitting the late Sir Hector MacDonald of any charge whatsoever, we cannot but deplore the sad circumstances of the case that have fallen so disastrously on one whom we have found innocent of any crime attributed to him.”