MacDonald, James Ramsay

First two old clips of him to watch...

MacDonald was born in Lossiemouth, in Morayshire in northeast Scotland, the illegitimate son of John Macdonald, a farm labourer, and Anne Ramsay, a housemaid. Although registered at birth as James McDonald Ramsay, he was known as Jaimie MacDonald. Illegitimacy could be a serious handicap in 19th-century Presbyterian Scotland, but in the north and northeast farming communities, this was less of a problem; In 1868 a report of the Royal Commission on the Employment of Children, Young Persons and Women in Agriculture noted that the illegitimacy rate was around 15% and it is unclear to what extent the associated stigma affected MacDonald throughout his life. He received an elementary education at the Free Church of Scotland school in Lossiemouth, and then from 1875 at the local Drainie parish school. In 1881 he became a pupil teacher at Drainie and the entry in the school register as a member of staff was 'J. MacDonald'. He remained in this post until 1 May 1885 to take up a position as an assistant to a clergyman in Bristol. It was in Bristol, that he joined the Democratic Federation, an extreme Radical sect. This federation changed its name a few months later to the Social Democratic Federation (SDF). He remained in the group when it left the SDF to become the Bristol Socialist Society. MacDonald returned to Lossiemouth before the end of the year for reasons unknown but in early 1886 once again left Lossiemouth for London.

Here is a pdf file of his Immortal Memory given while unveiling the Robert Burns statue in Vancouver.

Here is a pdf file of a tribute given about him.

Our thanks to John Henderson for providing these pdf's.

Iona Kielhorn at the Hillocks, the house Ramsay Macdonald built for his mother in Lossie, is sending us in information on the man himself which we detail below...

Picture set 1
Mountain named after his daughter
Vancouver's Tribute to Burns in which Ramsay MacDonald gave the Immortal Memory.