Hector Archibald MacDonald - the Private Who Became a General:- A Collection of Related Items, including a Robinson & Leadbeater parian bust; a trinket box made from the hoof of his charger "Knowall", with a silver plated hinged cover enclosing the sole and engraved with an inscription; a Gordon Highlanders officer's brass crossbelt plate set onto an oak plaque with a brass plaque engraved "THIS BOX WAS MADE FROM THE COFFIN USED TO INTER THE REGIMENTAL COLOURS OF THE OLD 'NINETY TWA' IN 1881. IT WAS GIVEN TO ME IN 1950 BY HECTOR MacDONALD, SON OF THE GENERAL OF THE SAME NAME", together with a book Fighting Mac, The Downfall of Major-General Sir Hector MacDonald, which references the mock funeral; six various other related publications; a rare silk Stevengraph; a cabinet card; an unframed Vanity Fair print by Spy "A General Group"; postcards, a hand written letter from him dated May 13th (1901) and a quantity of research material

Footnote:- Hector MacDonald was born 4th March 1853, the son of a crofter, he left school before he was 15 and was apprenticed to a draper in Dingwall. He enlisted with the Gordon Highlanders as a Private at the age of 17 and rose through the ranks on his own merit and professionalism to become a Major-General. He distinguished himself during the Second Afghan War and was offered the choice of the Victoria Cross or a commission. He chose the latter, but never quite fitted in with his fellow officers. He was posted to Ceylon as Commander-in-Chief of British forces, but committed suicide in 1903 following accusations of homosexual activity with local boys. This was almost certainly an invention prompted by jealous and cruel suggestion! His suicide caused great public shock, as did the discovery that he had secretly married in 1884 and had fathered a son. He was buried in "secret" at Dean Cemetery, Edinburgh, but 30,000 people turned up to pay their last respects.