Roderick Macdonald (politician)

{{Short description|Scottish medical doctor and politician}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2017}}

{{Use British English|date=March 2017}}

{{Infobox officeholder

|name=Roderick Macdonald

|honorific-suffix={{post-nominals|country=GBR|FRCS|size=100%}}

|parliament=United Kingdom

|constituency_MP=Ross and Cromarty

|term_start=1885

|term_end=1892

|predecessor=Ronald Munro Ferguson

|successor=Galloway Weir

|birth_date={{birth year|1840}}

|birth_place=Isle of Skye, Scotland

|death_date={{death year and age|1894|1840}}

|death_place=Middlesex, England

|party=Crofters'

|otherparty=Liberal

|spouse={{marriage|Frances Emma Maryon Perceval|28 January 1890|15 March 1893|reason=died}}

|education=

|occupation={{hlist|Medical doctor|politician}}

}}

Roderick Macdonald, {{post-nominals|country=GBR|FRCS|size=100%|commas=on}} (1840–1894) was a Scottish medical doctor and a Crofters Party politician. As a coroner he presided over the inquest of one of the victims in the Whitechapel murders.

Macdonald was the son of Angus Macdonald, a house carpenter, of Fairy Bridge, Skye. He was educated at the Free Church Normal School, Glasgow, and the University of Glasgow. Later he was a teacher at the Free Church School, Lonmore. He then studied medicine and was LRCP and LRCS, Edinburgh in 1867.Norman Macdonald and Cailean Maclean, The Great Book of Skye, volume 1 (Great Book Publishing, Portree, 2014), at pages 194-196 He was also a member of the Inner Temple.[https://archive.org/stream/debrettshouseo1886londuoft Debretts Guide to the House of Commons 1886]

He practised medicine in the East End of London, and was the divisional surgeon for the police in the Isle of Dogs.Obituary in the British Medical Journal, 24 March 1894, page 664

In 1885 Macdonald was elected as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Ross and Cromarty in the crofter's interest.{{cite book

|last=Craig

|first=F. W. S.

|author-link= F. W. S. Craig

|title=British parliamentary election results 1885–1918

|orig-year=1974

|edition= 2nd

|year=1989

|publisher= Parliamentary Research Services

|location=Chichester

|isbn= 978-0-900178-27-6

|page=559

}} He held the seat until he stood down at the 1892 election. Around 1887, he was elected as coroner for the north-east part of East Middlesex. He presided over the inquest into the death of Mary Jane Kelly, one of the victims in the Whitechapel murders, at Shoreditch Town Hall on 12 November 1888.Stewart P. Evans and Donald Rumbelow Jack the Ripper: Scotland Yard Investigates, p. 175 Sutton: Stroud (2006); {{ISBN|0-7509-4228-2}}

On 28 January 1890 Macdonald married Frances Emma Maryon Perceval (20 July 1868 – 15 March 1893), a great-granddaughter of Spencer Perceval. He lived at 65 West Ferry Road, Millwall, and later at 252 Camden Road, Middlesex, where he died from cancer, at age 54.