Murdoch Macdonald

Sir Murdoch MacDonald KCMG CB (6 May 1866 – 24 April 1957) was a notable civil engineer and British politician. Born in Inverness, Scotland, MacDonald was educated at the Farraline Park Institution there, and would serve later as the constituency's MP from 1922 until 1950.

A civil engineer by profession starting in 1890, MacDonald would work in British Egypt from 1898 to 1921. He established the firm of consulting engineers which eventually practiced under the name of Sir M MacDonald & Partners from 1927. In 1932, he became President of the Institution of Civil Engineers.

MacDonald served his apprenticeship as an engineer with the former Highland Railway Company, and following its completion he spent some years as an assistant engineer on various railway construction projects in Northern Scotland. Among them, there was the building of the Black Isle line between 1890 and 1894, and the widening of the main line between Dalnaspidal and Blair Athol. Years later, MacDonald noted that his early railway work included the design and construction of a small earthen dam and hydroelectric plant.

In 1898, he was invited by Benjamin Baker to go to Egypt as assistant engineer to Maurice Fitzmaurice, the resident engineer in charge of constructing the first Aswan Dam. MacDonald's appointment as an assistant engineer during the building of this significant structure marked the beginning of a 23-year term of service in Egypt. During the same dam's first heightening between 1908 and 1912, MacDonald was director-general of irrigation for the Egyptian Government. He subsequently became Under Secretary of State for Public Works, and finally adviser to Egypt's Minister of Public Works.

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