... May I ask how did you find out his brother was hector ??
Because there are a couple of Aberdeen newspaper articles indicating same:
- firstly, an article in May 1940 covering the retirement of a Mr. McAndrew, the head gardener at Fyvie Castle, in which it says that congratulations were offered to
'Hector MacDonald, foreman gardener, on his appointment by Sir Ian [ie. Forbes-Leith]
to be Mr McAndrew's successor';
- secondly, an article with photo in March 1975 about Hector and his wife travelling to Kuala Lumpur to attend their 43 year old son's wedding (I won't name him here, in case alive), in which it says
'From Strathdon, Mr. McDonald was head gardener at Fyvie Castle before moving to Glasgow where he became the corporation's district superintendent of parks'.
(BTW, Hector was the son born in 1906 at
'Old Simiel Strathdon' to parents John McDonald and Helen Simpson, father John died in 1930, the newspaper death notice at the time said
'At Old Sameil, Strathdon, on the 16th January, 1930, John McDonald, beloved husband of Helen Simpson, aged 62 years. Funeral on Monday, 20th inst., at 2.30 p.m., to Strathdon Churchyard. All friends respectfully invited.' With the usual health warning about accuracy, a tree on the 'Ancestry' website suggests that John McDonald and Helen Simpson also had a son William Simpson McDonald in 1902, a daughter Elizabeth Catherine McDonald in 1910, and a son Robert Anderson McDonald in 1918, but obviously the previously posted 1940 newspaper reference to Robert being one of
'five brothers in the Army' means that there were other sons.)
