Shawbost was plunged in grief when it was known that another of our lads in blue had made the supreme sacrifice in defence of his King, home and country. He was Donald Macarthur (of Borriston) who was married and settled in New Shawbost. He was with us on three weeks' leave quite recently. It is worthy of note that when Macarthur and his chum arrived at their base off leave, a day before their time, their ship was just leaving for sea, and if they had waited the expiration of their leave, the ship would have proceeded to sea without them. But such are the ways of Providence, and Macarthur laid down his life as the result of an enemy mine by which his ship was blown up just outside Zeebrugge. His chum, John Macleod RNR, who arrived back to Shawbost on Saturday, is one of the survivors and bore with personal grief the sorrowful intelligence of Macarthur's tale. The painful feelings of the whole community go out to Mrs Macarthur and her two children in their irrepairable loss of husband and father, who died that others might live.
8 November 1918
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