Donald Alec MacLeod

This article is in English. The Gaelic version can be read here.

Biography
Donald Alec was born in Knock on the 24th of January 1914. As a young man he worked at the fishing with his father Murdo Macleod (Rèibhis), who spent many years on the Muirneag which was owned by his next door neighbour Calum Macleod. Donald Alec was physically very strong and thought nothing of swimming from Ramadal across to Holm and back during the summer months. On leaving the fishing in Lewis he joined the Merchant Navy and throughout WW2 he was in the Royal Navy, serving mainly on North Atlantic Convoy duty. In 1941, not having seen Lewis for almost 2 years, he disembarked at Portsmouth and immediately received orders to join a naval destroyer at Greenock. He made his way there by train, joined the ship late in the evening, and being tired from the journey he made his way below to rest and fell asleep.

At that time, due to the need to preserve secrecy, personnel joining a ship were rarely told of the planned sailing until they were under way. On waking, he immediately made his way up on deck and discovered that the ship had anchored off Knock/Swordale whilst they awaited the arrival of the rest of the convoy.

From the ship’s deck he could see his father’s house, with smoke rising from the chimney, causing him to reflect on the life he had led there as a young man and to wonder if he would live to return there again. At that point he wrote the words of the song "Fàgail Ghrianaig" which captures so well his feelings at that moment. Donald Alec was also involved in an incident (which was necessarily unreported at the time) concerning the Queen Mary in 1942, in which he saved a man from drowning. The person that Dòmhnall Ailig pulled from the water was a boyhood friend from the same village: Iain Dan Maciver of 6 Schoolpark Knock. Donald Alec wrote several songs and poems over the years (all of which unfortunately have now been lost). He had a good singing voice and often put it to good use. Although he never married, he was fortunate enough to see most parts of the world and enjoyed his brief sojourns back to his native island until the old wanderlust took over again and he returned to his life at sea. He viewed life as an adventure and shared many tales about his experiences across the world. Ironically for such a strong swimmer, Donald Alec drowned in unresolved circumstances in the Clyde on the 23rd March 1972.