David Johnston MacDonald
David Johnston MacDonald (c1856-1940)
1941 Obituary [1]
DAVID JOHNSTON MACDONALD, O.B.E., whose death occurred in his eighty-fourth year on 21st September 1940, was elected a Member of the Institution in 1897, and was the author of a paper in 1907 on "Observations on Present-day Practice in Jute Preparing and Spinning".
He served his apprenticeship from 1874 to 1879, with Messrs. Robertson and Orchar of Dundee. From 1882 to 1888 he was engineer in the Nelson Street Jute Factory, and manager of St. Andrews Jute Works in Dundee. In 1889 he was appointed superintendent engineer to Messrs. Laing, and on leaving that firm, in 1892, he went into business on his own account as an engineer and manufacturer of overhead sewing machines. He also invented and designed machines for sewing sacks.
During the war of 1914-18, Mr. MacDonald was employed on the production of armaments and was a Member of the General Tribunal of the Ministry of Munitions. He also served on committees dealing with unemployment and disabled sailors and soldiers, and was chairman of the Juvenile Advisory Committee of the Ministry of Labour.