Researching Thomas Macdonald

He was a graduate of Glasgow University, and became secretary and chairman of the West of Scotland branch of the British Astronomical Association. From 1929 to 1931 he served as President of the West of Scotland Branch of the British Astronomical Association.

He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh on 5 March 1928. His proposers were Hector Copland Macpherson, Ralph Allan Sampson, Ludwig Becker and Edward Taylor Jones. He resigned from the Society in 1961.

From 1938 he served as Director of the Lunar Section of the British Astronomical Association, serving throughout the Second World War until 1946. At this time he lived at 9 Colebrooke Terrace in Glasgow.

MacDonald was a Labour councillor and Mayor of Carlisle from May 1961 to 1962. The Carlisle/Flensburg (Germany) town twinning relationship was established during his mayoral term.

He directed national road policy for 34 years, serving under seven different U.S. Presidents. During his time, he supervised the creation of 3.5 million miles of highways. Later, he personally directed the creation of the Alaskan Highway, and helped the countries of Central America in building the Inter-American Highway. "[He] was a force as powerful as his counterpart at the FBI, J. Edgar Hoover," insists historian Stephen B. Goddard, "yet was virtually unknown to most Americans."

MacDonald made his first-class debut for Ireland against the West Indians at College Park, Dublin in 1928. He made five further first-class appearances for Ireland, the last of which came against the Marylebone Cricket Club in 1936. In his six first-class matches for Ireland, he scored 255 runs at an average of 21.25, with a high score of 132. This score, which was his only first-class century, came against Scotland in 1928. While studying the University of Cambridge, MacDonald also made a single first-class appearance Cambridge University against Somerset in 1930. During this match he scored 29 runs in the Cambridge first-innings, before being dismissed by Jack Lee, while in their second-innings he was dismissed for 7 by Arthur Wellard.

He later played Minor counties cricket in England for Lincolnshire, first appearing for the county in the 1934 Minor Counties Championship against Norfolk. He made six further appearances for the county, the last of which came against Hertfordshire in 1936. In later life he became a schoolmaster. He died at Middlesbrough, Yorkshire, England on 23 March 1998. He survived his brother James, who also played first-class cricket for Ireland by nearly thirty years.