Identity area
Type of entity
Person
Authorized form of name
Macdonald, Angus Lewis
Parallel form(s) of name
Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules
Other form(s) of name
Identifiers for corporate bodies
Description area
Dates of existence
1890-1954
History
Angus Lewis Macdonald was born in Inverness County, Cape Breton on August 10, 1890. He was from a large family who moved to Port Hood, NS when he was a teenager. He earned his teaching license and taught for two years to earn money to attend St. Francis Xavier University, where he graduated in 1914. He then enlisted in the military, and served as Company Commander of the 185th Battalion of the Cape Breton Highlanders during WWI. He was injured from a sniper days before the Armistice in 1918, and recovered in England for a few months before returning to Nova Scotia. Upon returning, he enrolled in Dalhousie Law School, where he excelled in academic and extra-curricular activities. He graduated Law with High Honours in 1921, and became assistant Deputy Attorney General of Nova Scotia from 1921-1924. In 1922 he married his wife Agnes Foley, who also worked at the Attorney General’s office. She was a poet and has many pieces published in the Dalhousie Review. They had four children. Angus taught in the Dalhousie Law School from 1924-1930. In 1930 he was elected leader of the Liberal party, and in 1933 became the Premier of Nova Scotia. His Premiership was responsible for many infrastructural changes in the province, and saw roads paved, bridges built (ex: the Macdonald bridge and the Canso Causeway), electricity going to more areas of the province, and improvements to education. He also implemented old-age pensions in Nova Scotia. In 1940 he was called to federal politics to serve during WWII as the Minister of Defence for Naval Services. He returned to Nova Scotia in 1945 and became Premier again from 1945-1954. Macdonald died in office on April 13, 1954 at the age of 63. Macdonald has many things named in his honour, including the Angus L. Macdonald Bridge between Halifax and Dartmouth (a project of his during his Premiership), the St. Francis Xavier Angus L. Macdonald Library, and the A.L. Macdonald building on the Dal Sexton campus.