Alan MacDougall.

When the war came Alan MacDougall enlisted, as we knew he would. The announcement of his death in action in France will have brought up in the minds of many of us memories which have long been treasured and which will now be held inviolate.

It is not my intention to deal here with his scholastic record at school and at college, his many prizes, his First Class Honours, his Research Scholarship, culminating in that Empire prize, the Rhodes Scholarship; nor with his subsequent career in England, proceeding in brilliant stages till it came to an end which, though sadly early, was more brilliant and inspiring than them all. I shall merely endeavour to give, in a manner which must necessarily be entirely inadequate, a brief impression of those characteristics of his that made him so attarctive to all who met him, to all who knew him so lovable.

It was his attractive personality that first appealed to one and once one had been drawn to him by that, it did page 35 not take long for the deeper seeds of friendship to take root and flourish. Quiet in manner and speech, earnest, almost wistful in expression, he had a ready smile that was a delight to see.

Of his faculties, that which stood out above all others was the critical. He saw through all the shams and affectations of mankind, perhaps a little too much, for in his affections there were no half-lights; he liked or he disliked, he did not merely tolerate. I think he has never lost a friend. It was the application of this highly developed critical faculty transferred from the man to the works of man, that helped to place him in the high position he had attained in his profession and to win him the praise and admiration of the highest authorities in the branches of knowledge that he studied. Yet, analytical as its inclination was, his mind ever saw and seized upon opportunities for usefulness of a constructive nature.

To see him was to recognize the strength of will, the fearlessness, and the determination that were always with him in all he undertook. One knew that he would see it through. And all this though he was physicallly not particularly strong. I remember once, when we were sitting for Honours in English, how we came out of the examination room together after a three hours paper, and started to talk about the questions set. We immediately discovered that he had in error been given the Senior Scholarship paper to answer. Mr. Joynt was communicated with, permission was obtained after a thoroughly keen and enjoyable argument between Alan and the supervisor, and Alan sat straight on for another three hours with the Honours paper and got his First Class.

Those who have played with or against him on the green fields can appreciate his quality in these branches of his activity. He played for all he was worth and he always played the game. Much above the average as a bowler, at cricket he helped the club whereof he was one of the founders to many a joyous victory or participated in many a joyous defeat. At hockey, at half or in goal, he played an equally brainy game. He never lost his head. One can well understand how his Commanding Officer, writing after Alan's death, refers to his young captain not only as a personal friend but as an exceptionally page 36 efficient officer. None but would gladly entrust his life to his care.

It was curious to notice how even in his earlier days here, men much older than he seemed to regard him as their adviser on the field and off, and that quiet philosophy of his, often expressed in trenchant phrase, was always at their service. To those who were privileged to know him intimately, a day spent in his company listening to his sane and calm opinions on men and things touched ever with his abundant sense of humour, was a joy to be long remembered.

He was at Victoria College while it was still young, while its traditions were forming, its course being set, and how great his influence has been only the Professors and those old students who were there with him can fully realize; to try to set it down on paper would take the life out of it all. But if we feel that there is a spirit about our College of which we as its students may be justly proud, then that is but a tribute to the work in which Alan MacDougall played so large a part.

Alan, you have left a gap in the hearts of your friends of Victoria College that can never be filled. But the winds that blow through this building of ours are the cleaner and purer, the memories that cling to its halls and walls are the sweeter because you have sojourned amongst us, and in the warp ond woof of that tradition which is growing up in our midst, and which will be forever with us, your hands have spun of the finest gold.

—S.E.