Padre Mac

From a croft in the Hebridean island of Harris to the grim confines of the Nazis' notorious prisoner-of-war camp Stalag Luft III and the hallowed halls of Glasgow University, the life of Murdo Ewen Macdonald was one of extraordinary variety and richness. Macdonald was ordained as a Church of Scotland minister in 1939, and joined up in 1940. After volunteering in the First Parachute Brigade he was sent to North Africa, where, during a catastrophic mission in which he was severely wounded, he was taken prisoner in 1942. At the infamous Stalag Luft III he supported countless prisoners through their POW experience and assisted the 76 men who took part in the famous Great Escape. After the war he served in various charges in Scotland before being appointed Professor of Practical Theology at Glasgow University, a post which he held to his retirement in 1984. In this much acclaimed book he looks back over his long and eventful life.