The Honourable Augustine Colin Macdonald

Augustine Colin Macdonald was the twenty-third Lieutenant Governor of Prince Edward Island since the creation of the Colony in 1763. Augustine Colin Macdonald was the son of Hugh Macdonald, esquire, who came to Prince Edward Island in 1805 from Moydart, Inverness-shire, Scotland, and was married to Catherine, daughter of A. Macdonald of Rhue Arisaig, Inverness-shire. Augustine Macdonald was born at Panmure, Prince Edward Island, on 30th June 1837. He was educated at the Georgetown grammar school and at the Central Academy in Charlottetown and became a merchant. On 27th June 1865 he married Mary Elizabeth, sixth daughter of the late Hon. John Small Macdonald. They had a family of seven children.

Augustine Macdonald was a Commander for managing the Exhibition of Local Industry for Prince Edward Island on several occasions. He was a captain in the Voluntary Militia. Macdonald sat in the Provincial House of Assembly representing the 3rd Kings District from 1870 to 1873 and was reelected in the 1873 Provincial General Election. He resigned from provincial politics in September 1873 and ran in the federal by-election for the District of Kings County and was elected by Acclamation on 29th September 1873 as a Liberal- Conservative. Augustine Macdonald re-offered as a Liberal-Conservative candidate in the federal election on 22nd January 1874 for Kings County District and was defeated and then re-offered as a Liberal- Conservative in the federal election held on 17th September 1878 for Kings County District and was elected. Again, on 20th June 1882, he re-offered in the federal election and was defeated. He was elected in the 3rd March 1891 federal election for Kings County District and defeated in the federal election on 17th November 1900 for Kings County District as a Conservative candidate. He was appointed Lieutenant Governor for the Province of Prince Edward Island on 2nd June 1915.

Lieutenant Governor Macdonald died in office on 16th July 1919.

Photograph courtesy of PEI Public Archives and Records Office, Reference Number 2320/60-24