Hugh McDonald (1891 - 1953)

Born 25 Aug 1891 in Gateshead, Durham, England

Husband of Myra Jessamine (Miller) McDonald — married Oct 1915 (to 1953) in Thanet, Kent, England

Died 1953 at about age 61 in Mildenhall, Suffolk, England, United Kingdom

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Nick Miller [send private message]

Biography

Hugh McDonald was born in Gateshead, County Durham, England.

Hugh MacDonald from tree MacDonald-Williams Family Treehg
Birth Sep 1891 Gateshead, Durham, England
Father James MacDonald (1870-1921)
Mother Elizabeth Nuttney (1870-1905)
^[1]

Event Type: Birth Registration
Name: Hugh Mcdonald
Event Date: 1891
Event Place: Gateshead, Durham, England
Registration Quarter: Jul-Aug-Sep
Registration Year: 1891

Event Type: Census
Event Place Note: Fox Street
Name: Hugh Mcdonald
Sex: Male
Age: 9
Event Date: 31 Mar 1901
Event Place: Gateshead, Durham, England, United Kingdom
Birth Year (Estimated): 1892
Birthplace: Gateshead, Durham
Marital Status: Single
Relationship to Head of Household: Son

Household Role Sex Age Birthplace
James Mcdonald Father M 31 North Shields, Northumberland
Elizabeth Mcdonald Mother F 31 Newcastle On Tyne, Northumberland
James Mcdonald Brother M 5 Gateshead, Durham
Elizabeth Mcdonald Sister F 8 Gateshead, Durham

Event Type: Marriage
Name: Hugh Mcdonald
Marriage Date: 1915
Marriage Place: Thanet, Kent, England
Registration Quarter: Oct-Nov-Dec
Registration Year: 1915
Spouse Name (available after 1911): Miller
Possible Spouse: Myra J Miller

Service in the Great War

Hugh McDonald served in the Royal Naval Air Service in World War I
Service started: 18 12 1909
Unit(s): RNAS Westgate, later RAF Manston
Service ended: after 1930

Hugh McDonald RN - RAF service record

Hugh McDonalds RAF record transcription.
DoB 20/08/1891
City Newcastle
Gateshead
Durham
Religious Denomination Roman Cathoic
Enlisted: Boy Service 18/12/09, age 17 186/365 Navy
Transferred Man Service 20/08/09 Navy
Transferred 1/02/1915 RNAS
Transferred 1/04/18 RAF
Reengaged to complete 24 years RAF service
Civilian Occupation Rivet Heater
Marriage
Maiden Name of Wife Jessamine Maria Miller
Date 25/12/15. Town Isle of Thanet
Date Placed on Married Enlistment 1 Jan 1921
Children, Christian names, Date and Place of Birth
Joseph Cameron 5/02/17
Lewis Roland 6/03/19
Person to be informed of casualties
Name Myra McDonald
Address 33 Mar Qtrsr 10 Squadron
Relationship Wife
Description of Airman on Entry
Height 5 Feet 4 inches. Chest 34 ½ inches.
Hair Dark brown
Eyes Blue
complexion fair.
RAF trade to which mustered on entry
Disciplinarian
Movements and Promotions
204 Sqn 1/04/18
Promoted RAF Sgt 1/04/18
Promoted Fl Sgt Discipline 15/04/18
Promoted Fl Sgt Drill 1/01/19
48 Sqdn HQ India 2/06/19
Home est 15/06/20
Baldonnel Aerodrome, Dublin and Oranmore Co Mayo 100 Sqdn 21/09/20 to 8/08/22 Awarded two Good Conduct medals at Oramore, 30/07/21
Various postings including H Q P Wing awarded Good Conduct medal 100 Sqdn 20/08/22
Promoted W O 31/05/24
Various postings to 13/012/27
Royal Victoria Hospital Netley, 11/07/30 ^[2]

There was a Royal Naval Air Service seaplane base at Westgate during WWI, which may explain why a son of Gateshead married a Westgate lass.
Hugh continued to serve in the RNAS , then the RAF, moving with the airfield to Manston between 1916 and 1920 when Westgate finally closed. Their son Hugh Cameron was bourn at Dover in 1917, which is just south of Manstron, whilst they had moved back to Westgate for the birth of their second son in 1919. ^[3]
There was also a small and precarious landing strip for aircraft at St Mildreds Bay, Westgate, on top of the chalk cliffs
The landing grounds atop the cliff soon became the scene of several accidents, with at least one plane seen to fail to stop before the end of the cliffs and tumble into the sea, which for the fortunate pilot had been on its inward tide.
In the winter of 1915-1916 these early aircraft first began to use the open farmlands at Manston as a site for emergency landings. Thus was soon established the Admiralty Aerodrome at Manston. It was not long after this that the training school, set up originally to instruct pilots in the use of the new Handley Page bombers, was established, and so by the close of 1916 there were already two distinct units stationed at Manston, the Operational War Flight Command and the Handley Page Training School.
Its location near the Kent coast gave Manston some advantages over the other previously established aerodromes and regular additions in men and machinery were soon made, particularly, in these early days, from Detling. By 1917 the Royal Flying Corps was well established and taking an active part in the defence of England.
At a time when Zeppelin raids were bringing the war directly to English civilians, daylight bombing raids by German ’Gotha’ Bombers, a twin engined biplane, would have been considerably more effective were it not for the RFC’s presence at Manston.
The German air raids had lasted for thirteen weeks, the last being on 22 August 1917. On this occasion, of the 15 bombers that set out for England five did not reach the Kent coast, and the ’spirited’ intervention from Manston based fighters prevented those remaining from flying further west, three being destroyed outright and the remaining seven returning to Germany with dead and wounded on board.^[4]

McDonald family 1921 Census return

McDonald family 1921 Census return street address.

Census transcript
3 Belmont Terrace, Westgate on sea.
Hugh McDonald, Head, 29Years 10 Months, Durham Gateshead, RAF, Manston
Myra Jessie McDonald, 30, Kent, Margate, Home Duties
Hugh Cameron McDonald, 4 Kent Dover, at school whole time.
Roland Lewis McDonald, 2, Kent Westgate on Sea.

Hugh McDonald's life in 1939 National Registration
Farns Beek Row Road, Mildenhall R.D., Suffolk, England
First name(s) Last name(s) DOB Sex Occupation Marital status
Hugh McDonald 25 Aug 1891 Male Station Warden R A F -
Myra J McDonald 14 Jun 1891 Female Unpaid Domestic Duties

Royal Air Force Mildenhall's history of being a large aircraft base goes all the way back to late 1920s. During that time, the British military developed the idea to site a RAF bomber base at Mildenhall in order to meet a perceived "continental threat." The government purchased land in 1929 and began construction in October 1930. The first official base name was RAF Beck Row, but that changed in 1933 to RAF Station Mildenhall. Contractors completed the first buildings in 1931. Three years later the station was ready for its official opening. RAF Station Mildenhall opened Oct. 16, 1934. However, King George V officially dedicated the base Oct. 19, 1934.
RAF Mildenhall didn't receive its first operational unit until Nov. 15, 1934 when No. 99 (Madras Presidency) Bomber Squadron, arrived at RAF Station Mildenhall. Along with the No. 99 Squadron came the Heyford Night Bomber. The squadron re-equipped with Wellington Bombers in 1938 and left the station in March 1941. A second operational squadron activated on RAF Station Mildenhall Sept. 16, 1935. Its core came from "B" flight of No. 99 Squadron. This was the No. 38 Bomber Squadron. They too started with the Heyford bombers and their motto was "Ante Lucem" (Before the Dawn). May 1, 1936, No. 3 Group, one of five groups forming out of the Central and Western Bombing Areas, took control of RAF Station Mildenhall. This group would eventually move to RAF Station Mildenhall. May 23, 1936,
December 1945 marked the first major involvement by the USAAF with RAF Station Mildenhall. Two B-17 Flying Fortresses arrived at the station for bomb trials. They were stripped of their armament and modified to carry a rocket assisted 4,500 lb. bomb, or a 2,000 lb. bomb with a special penetration head under each wing. A third B-17 arrived shortly after the first two. The B-17s took part in service trials for the new Lincoln Bomber. No. 15 Squadron participated in these trials that included high-level bombing with the three deployed B-17s. The trials took place in January 1946.
In June 1953, the first KC-97E Stratotankers moved to RAF Mildenhall. They were tankers of the 306th Air Refueling Squadron from the 306th Wing. The mission of the new tankers was to provide air refueling support to the new B-47 Stratojet based at RAF Fairford. This was a first time for both aircraft at each base. On Jan. 17, 1958, RAF Mildenhall officially became the new home for the Military Air Transport Service's United Kingdom Passenger Terminal. This terminal made RAF the central site for logistical support for the whole of the U.K^[5]

McDonald Hugh
1953
England & Wales Government Probate Death Index 1858-2019
Mildenhall, Suffolk, England^[6]

Sources

1. ↑ https://www.ancestry.com/search/categories/42/?name=Hugh_McDonald&birth=1891_Kent+England-United+Kingdom.&death=_Wandsworth-London-England-United+Kingdom&defaultFacets=PRIMARY_YEAR.PRIMARY_NPLACE&marriage=1915_Thanet+Kent&spouse=Myra_Miller
2. ↑ https://search.findmypast.co.uk/record?id=GBM%2FAIR79%2F2720%2F00130&parentid=GBM%2FAIR79%2F205189
3. ↑ https://www.ukairfieldguide.net/airfields/Westgate
4. ↑ https://www.forces-war-records.co.uk/units/631/raf-manston
5. ↑ https://www.mildenhall.af.mil/About-Us/Fact-Sheets/Display/Article/270389/raf-mildenhall-history/
6. ↑ https://www.findmypast.co.uk/search/results?sourcecategory=life%20events%20(bmds)&firstname=hugh&firstname_variants=true&lastname=mcdonald&yearofbirth=1891&yearofbirth_offset=0&keywordsplace=suffolk%2c%20england&keywordsplace_proximity=5&sid=999

• "England and Wales Birth Registration Index, 1837-2008," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:2X1S-4TC : 1 October 2014), Hugh Mcdonald, 1891; from "England & Wales Births, 1837-2006," database, findmypast (http://www.findmypast.com : 2012); citing Birth Registration, Gateshead, Durham, England, citing General Register Office, Southport, England.
• "England and Wales Census, 1901," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XSCT-W4Z : 21 May 2019), Hugh Mcdonald in household of James Mcdonald, Gateshead, Durham, England, United Kingdom; from "1901 England, Scotland and Wales census," database and images, findmypast (http://www.findmypast.com : n.d.); citing Gateshead subdistrict, PRO RG 13, The National Archives, Kew, Surrey.
• "England and Wales Marriage Registration Index, 1837-2005," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:26X9-7S3 : 13 December 2014), Hugh Mcdonald and null, 1915; from "England & Wales Marriages, 1837-2005," database, findmypast (http://www.findmypast.com : 2012); citing 1915, quarter 4, vol. 2A, p. 3140, Thanet, Kent, England, General Register Office, Southport, England.
• 1939 National Registration: [1]