Borrisdale losses

3 December 1943
In these tragic days, when sorrow and suffering are so widespread, painful news, which in normal times would be overwhelming, tends to become commonplace, thereby failing effectively to touch those cords of fellow-feeling and sympathy which so enrich and ennoble life. Is this not one of the evils of war?

It would perhaps be invidious to draw comparisons between the sacrifices made by different districts and communities, or to mention the grievousness of the loss of one life more than another, but Providence sometimes appears to direct its blows more heavily on some particular spot. This seems to be so in the case of the small village of Borrisdale, Leverburgh, where all three who answered the call to active service have now made the supreme sacrifice.

First of all, Seaman John R. T. Maclean, son of Mr and Mrs Donald Maclean, a quiet, likeable lad, in his early twenties; then Seaman Roderick Mackinnon, son of John Mackinnon, a fine young lad who was little more than a boy; and now Sergeant Neil Macdonald, the only son of Mr and Mrs Donald Macdonald, Borrisdale, who has lost his life in action in the Middle East.

It is no exaggeration to say that Neil was one of Nature's gentlemen, whose unique qualities made him a general favourite. Having studied for 6 years at Portree Higher Grade School, he took his Higher Leavings before the war commenced and when called up for active service was employed in a Ministry of Labour office in Tunbridge Wells, where his sister was nursing at the time. Typical of his manly character was his remark when it was suggested to him that he could ask for a postponement; "No, it is only a coward who hesitates when called upon to defend his country in its hour of danger".

Sergt Macdonald went through the North African campaign unscathed and the collapse of Italy raised the hopes of his parents and many friends that he would soon be back with us again, but it was not to be. How difficult it is to realise that we shall see him no more, and how difficult to understand why such a beautiful promising life is now ended. May He who alone knows the why and wherefore, the true Comforter, sustain and comfort the heartbroken parents and only sister in their great distress.

The heartfelt sympathy of the whole community is extended to them in their sorrow.