Allan MacDonald

Allan Nicoll MacDonald (25 August 1892 – 18 January 1978) was an Australian politician who served as a Senator for Western Australia from 1935 to 1947. He served as a minister without portfolio in the Lyons and Page governments.

Early life MacDonald was born on 25 August 1892 in Lochee, Forfarshire, Scotland. He was the son of Helen Christie (née Nicoll) and Alexander MacDonald. His father had been manager of a jute mill near Naihati, India, before retiring to Scotland. MacDonald spent seven months recuperating in England, before joining the Australian Army Pay Corps in Egypt where he was a warrant officer. He was discharged from the AIF at his own request in 1919 to joined the American Red Cross in Palestine.

On 29 November 1937, MacDonald was appointed as a minister without portfolio in the Lyons government, maintaining Western Australian representation in the cabinet following the defeat of external affairs minister George Pearce at the 1937 election. He was minister assisting the Minister for Commerce until November 1938 and then minister assisting the Treasurer until April 1939, when Lyons' successor Robert Menzies chose not to retain him in the new ministry. In the same year he was granted several months of absence while hospitalised for ulcers. He experienced further bouts of illness in 1943 and 1945.

Personal life In 1916, MacDonald married Christiana Hildreth, a Women's Legion driver whom he met while recuperating in London. The couple had three sons and two daughters.

MacDonald lived in Canberra while in parliament but returned to Perth after his defeat. He was active in real estate and was appointed to the Lotteries Commission of Western Australia in 1948, serving as chairman from 1961 to 1965.

MacDonald retired to his home in Mount Lawley, Western Australia. He died on 18 January 1978 at the Repatriation General Hospital, Hollywood, aged 85.