Researching James Mcdonald

He was born in Bridgeville, Nova Scotia, the son of Alexander McDonald and Janet Fraser. McDonald moved to London, Upper Canada in 1834 with his family but the family later returned to New Glasgow, Nova Scotia. McDonald studied law with Martin Isaac Wilkins and was called to the bar in 1851. In 1855, he married Jane Mortimer. He was elected to the Nova Scotia House of Assembly for Pictou County in 1859. McDonald was reelected in 1863 and was named chief railway commissioner. In 1864, he was named financial secretary and served in that post until 1867 when he was an unsuccessful candidate for a federal seat. In 1871, McDonald was elected to the Nova Scotia assembly for Pictou County. He resigned his seat after he was elected to the House of Commons in 1872. From 1878 to 1881, he was the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada.

McDonald served as president of the Tasmanian Branch of the Australian Workers Union, and was Secretary of the Tasmanian Branch of the Australian Labor Party from 1931–1935.

He was the father of John Joseph McDonald and Thomas Raymond McDonald, who both served as members of the Tasmanian House of Assembly.

Born in Wallan, Victoria, to storekeeper John Roderick McDonald and Marion Frances Menere, he grew up in Wallan and farmed in the Kyneton-Woodend area from 1910. During World War I he served for two years with the Australian Imperial Force, during which time he was seriously wounded; after his return he became president of the Woodend Returned and Services League. In August 1923 he was elected to the Victorian Legislative Assembly in a by-election for the seat of Daylesford, representing the Labor Party, but in September he was defeated in a recount. At the 1924 state election he won the seat again, but it was abolished in 1927 and McDonald tried but failed to win Mildura. From 1929 he lived in Adelaide, where he died after a long period of poor health in 1938.

He writes on a range of topics including Gnostic Dualism, the Cathars of the Languedoc and their theology, the Counts of Toulouse, Occitania, Medieval warfare and the Medieval Inquisition. His work is characterised by combining serious scholarship with an entertaining style. Something of a polymath, he has also written on subjects as diverse as computer simulation, mathematical problems, philosophy, etymology and comparative philology. For several years he wrote a weekly column on English word origins for the Sunday Express, a national newspaper in the UK.

He has travelled extensively in Central Asia and Southern Asia, researching Zoroastrianism and other ancient religions. According to his publishers his book Beyond Belief took over 20 years of research, including an overland expedition from Europe to South and Central Asia, retracing the journeys of Alexander the Great, Robert Byron and Eric Newby. This research took him to sites including Medjugorje in Herzegovina; traditional Bogomil sites in the Balkans, early Christian sites across Turkey, the Mountains of Ararat near the border with Iran, Zoroastrian Towers of Silence, Chak Chak and other Zoroastrian centres in Iran, Christian churches in Pakistan, Parsee temples in Mumbi, the Syrian Churches of Kerala, the Roza Bal shrine at Srinagar in Kashmir; Lumbini in the Rupandehi district of Nepal; early Buddhist sites along the Karakorum Highway, and historic religious sites of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

He was educated in the UK at University College, Oxford, and at Sussex and Nottingham Universities. He holds an MA in mathematics from Oxford University, an MSc in Operational Research from Sussex University and an MA in history and theology from the Nottingham University. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society in London in 1990. He is a life member of Humanists UK. His biography in the 5th edition of his book Voltaire on the Cathars notes that he is one of a small but growing number of atheist theologians.

He is the châtelain of Château Saint-Ferriol, a late medieval - early Renaissance castle, in the village and commune of Saint-Ferriol, in the Aude département in the South of France which is listed as a Monument Historique by the French Government.

He was born in Geelong to mason John McDonald and Catherine McIntyre. He was educated in Winchelsea and became a contractor and then a butcher at Inverleigh. He also ran orchards at Inverleigh and Colac. He served on Bannockburn Shire Council from 1888 to 1917, with four terms as president (1893–95, 1900–01, 1911–12, 1916–17). In 1917 he was elected to the Victorian Legislative Assembly for Polwarth, representing the Economy Party faction of the Nationalists. He was a minister without portfolio from 1924 to 1927. He held his seat until his death at Inverleigh in 1933. His nephew Allan McDonald succeeded him in the seat.