(6 Oct. 1864-23 Dec. 1941), soldier. (General Macdonell, Sir Archibald C. Macdonell, A. C. Macdonell, Archie) Born at Windsor, Ont. Parents: Samuel Smith Macdonell, who was the 1st reeve of Windsor after its incorporation as a village in 1854 and the 1st mayor of Windsor after its incorporation as a town in 1858, and his wife Ellen Guillot Brodhead, said to be descended from a general of George Washington. Archibald Cameron Macdonell attended Trinity College School, Port Hope, Ont. After graduating in 1886 from RMC (the Royal Military College, Kingston, Ont.), he served in the Canadian militia, then in 1889 he joined the NWMP (North West Mounted Police), with which he served for many years. He was one of the authorities involved in the attack on the Indian rebel Almighty Voice (Dictionary of Canadian Biography, XII, 499). McDonell fought in the Boer War, and was wounded there at the Battle of Diamond Hill. In 1907 he became major of the Royal Canadian Mounted Rifles, later known as the Lord Strathcona’s Horse. He served overseas throughout the First World War, being wounded and rising to the rank of general. From June 1917, he commanded the 1st Canadian Division. In 1919, he was made commandant of his old college, RMC.
His front-page obituary in the Glengarry News stated that he “was well-known throughout this county with which he was closely connected. Sir Archie visited Glengarry on many occasions; he had a warm place in his heart for the old county” His friends in GC included his kinsman Jack Greenfield (John A. Macdonell) and Col. A. G. F. Macdonald. The Glengarry News of 20 Sept. 1918 printed a long, remarkable letter written by him on 26 July to Jack Greenfield (beginning “My dear Greenfield” and signed “Archie”) from the front in France, giving his views on what seemed at last to be evidence that the war was approaching its end (“the tide has turned and hereafter it will be the South after Gettysburg,” he thought), and including notes on various men of the GC connection, including the future Judge Ian Macdonell. When General Macdonell visited Jack Greenfield in Alexandria in June 1919, Mayor Simon, councillors, and a band were among those who greeted him. (Glengarry News 27 June 1919) And in June 1921, General Macdonell was one of the distinguished visitors (Premier Drury was another) at Jack Greenfield’s soldiers’ memorial day celebrations in Alexandria. (GN 17 June 1921) In Nov. of that year, General Macdonell unveiled the war memorial tablets at St. Andrew’s Church, Williamstown, and at the Presbyterian church, Alexandria. (GN 11 Nov. 1921) In 1929 he was drafted in to appeal to the people to support “our local Fair” at Alexandria. (GN 23 Aug. 1929) He was an honorary colonel of the SDG Highlanders regiment. Col. Boss’s history of the regiment is dedicated to his memory.
His writings included a number of articles on the history of the 59th Regiment published in the Glengarry News of 1921, and a booklet on the history of the SDG regiment, also some articles in the Canadian Defence Quarterly (1927, 1928, 1931) on the “Old Red Patch” (i.e., the 1st Canadian Division). The 1st Canadian Division in the Battles of 1918 (pp. 56; London, 1919), though the nominal compiler was Capt. J. D. Craig, has been described (CHR, XV, 1934 p. 184), on the basis of private information or guesswork, as “Compiled under direction of Major-General A. C. Macdonell,” and Macdonell signed the foreword.
He died at Kingston, Ont., and is buried at Cataraqui Cemetery there. He was an Anglican. He was married in 1890 to Mary Maud Flora Campbell. She died at Burlington, Ont., 13 July 1936. She was survived by 1 daughter. Three other children of the marriage had died in the West during Macdonell’s service there. A son of the marriage, Lieut. Ian Cameron Macdonell, died 2 July 1916, aged 21, in the Battle of the Somme, while serving with the Royal Flying Corps (the predecessor of the RAF). Ian’s name is on the Glengarry war memorial, Alexandria.
General Macdonell was not a Glengarrian, but was a prominent member of one of the great GC family connections. He has to be distinguished from his contemporary and near namesake, another general whose career parallels his own, Senator Archibald Hayes Macdonell. Both these generals were grandsons of Alexander Macdonell (1762-1842) of Collachie, who was MLA for GC, and they were great-grandsons, therefore, of Allan Macdonell of Collachie, who was one of the leaders of the 1773 Pearl migration to New York province, the first of the migrations which led to the founding of the GC Highland Scottish settlement. Both these generals attended the funeral in Alexandria in 1930 of the historian John A. Macdonell (Jack Greenfield).
Standard Freeholder 24 Dec. 1941, London Times 27 Dec. 1941 (10 column inches), Glengarry News 2 Jan. 1942 (with portrait) * biog. sketches in Morgan (1912) 685, Parker (1912) 338, MDict 500, Encyclopedia Canadiana and Hurtig * GC descent noted, GN 10 Aug. 1917 * Glengarry Life 1993 (various data, with portrait, & repr. of valuable, fact-filled obituary article from RMC Review June 1942) * Bibliography of Glengarry: index * obituaries of wife, GN & SFH both 17 July 1936 * exchange of letters with Sir Donald Macmaster Cornwall Standard 1 July 1915, 30 March 1922 * gives pictures to SDG Highlanders regiment, SFH 27 May 1936 * remembered in obituary of his nephew, Col. Hugh MacDonell Wallis, highly decorated WWI officer and colonel of the Black Watch, GN 1 May 1991 * information from Commonwealth War Graves Commission on Ian Cameron Macdonell