Researching James Macdonald

Born in Edinburgh, MacDonald trained as a tailor and moved to London in 1881. He joined the Central Marylebone Democratic Association and the Manhood Suffrage League, but it was reading Friedrich Engels' articles in the Labour Standard that convinced him of socialism. As a result, he joined the Social Democratic Federation (SDF), but left in 1885 to join the Socialist Union. However, he rejoined the SDF in 1887.

In 1888, MacDonald worked with Lewis Lyons to unite both East End and West End tailors, which became the Amalgamated Society of Tailors. He then founded a newspaper, Journeyman, and joined the Independent Labour Party (ILP).

In 1891, MacDonald was elected to the executive of the London Trades Council, and in 1896 he became its Secretary, a post he held until 1913. Despite being based in London, he twice stood for Parliament in Dundee as an ILP candidate, failing to win a seat. He also spent some time on the Parliamentary Committee of the Trades Union Congress and in 1893 successfully proposed an amendment requiring it to support only those Labour candidates who accepted the principle of collective ownership.

In 1898, MacDonald organised merger talks between the SDF and ILP, but these proved unsuccessful, the ILP withdrawing. Increasingly radical, in 1900 he proposed a motion that the ILP should be an organisation of class war, but this was voted down. He was also elected to the first Labour Representation Committee (LRC) as a representative of the SDF. Some reports claimed that Ramsay MacDonald was elected Secretary of the LRC in part because he was confused with James, although Arthur Henderson strongly denied that this was the case.

MacDonald launched the London Trades and Labour Gazette in 1901, editing it until 1913. Initially publishing it personally, it became the official journal of the London Trades Council in 1903.

In 1905, he left the Amalgamated Society of Tailors to found the London Society of Tailors and Tailoresses. He later retired to Australia, but returned to the UK a few years before his death.

He was born in Huron County, Ontario and was educated in Stratford, Ontario, at the University of Toronto and at Osgoode Hall. MacDonald first set up practice in Toronto in 1890 and then moved to Rossland, British Columbia in 1896. He married Mary Richardson. In 1909, he was named Chief Justice in the British Columbia Court of Appeal. MacDonald served as Chief Justice of the British Columbia Supreme Court from 1929 until his retirement in 1937. He died two years later in Victoria at the age of 81.

Macdonald made his first-class debut for Ireland against Wales at Ormeau, Belfast in 1926. He made thirteen further first-class appearances for Ireland, the last of which came against Scotland in 1939. In his fourteen first-class matches, he scored 622 runs at an average of 23.92, with a high score of 108 not out. This score, which was his only first-class century, came against the Marylebone Cricket Club in 1936. An all-rounder, MacDonald took 35 wickets at a bowling average of 25.45, with best figures of 5/33. These figures, which were his only first-class five wicket haul, came against Scotland in 1933.

He died at Bangor, Northern Ireland on 8 March 1969. He was survived by his brother Thomas, who also played first-class cricket for Ireland. James had two other brothers George and Norman. Norman was born in 1914,saw active service in the Pacific at a Commander in the Royal Navy and died in 2014.

MacDonald was the son of Captain Archibald MacDonald, of 10th Hussars, and grandson of the first Lord Macdonald, in the peerage of Ireland, who claimed descent from the Lord of the Isles. He emigrated, in 1839, to South Australia, where he settled in the Sturt district.

In 1841 he was appointed Commissioner of Crown Lands, a nominated member of the unicameral South Australian Legislative Council from 1 July 1844 to 31 January 1846 and in 1844-45 was Treasurer. After acting as Visiting Magistrate in the north, he was for a number of years Magistrate at Burra, and ultimately Commissioner of Insolvency for four years. Retiring on a pension, he resided at the Sturt till 1880, when he returned to England, where he died in the suburbs of London, on 1 December 1881.

Born in 1958, Macdonald began working as a director at the Royal Court under Max Stafford-Clark, in his twenties after graduating from Oxford University and L'Ecole Internationale de Theatre Jacques Lecoq. Since leaving the Royal Court in 2007 Macdonald has worked extensively in New York, in most of the major theatres across London and the West End, and directed a 2008 feature film of A Number by Caryl Churchill for HBO/BBC Films.

His productions include Fewer Emergencies by Martin Crimp at the Royal Court (2005), Glengarry Glen Ross in the West End (2007), The world premiere of The Arrest of Ai Weiwei at the Hampstead Theatre (2013) and Bakkhai at Almeida Theatre in 2015.

James Macdonald is on the board of Stage Directors UK.