Mr Joseph MacDonald ¹ was born in Glasgow, Scotland on 1 December 1885. One of eight children and the only one to be born in Scotland, he was the son of English-born parents, William Edward MacDonald and the former Mary Ann Ellen Ekin. His father hailed from Sheffield and was a shop manager before becoming a cab driver; his mother hailed from Newark, Warwickshire. 

Joseph’s early years were spent in Toxteth, Liverpool before the family moved to Birkenhead sometime prior to 1901; by 1911 the family lived at 244 Claughton Road, Birkenhead. He went to sea at a young age and between 1907 and 1909 was recorded as a steward aboard the Empress of Britain and Lake Champlain. 

In April 1912 MacDonald was a waiter aboard the Carpathia when that ship rescued the survivors of the Titanic disaster. 

MacDonald was married in 1913 to divorcee Margaret Charnock Spoor, née Tyrer (1886-1932); they had no children. 

During WWI Joseph MacDonald served as a Lance Corporal with the Army Service Corps; he was killed in action on 22 October 1916 and is buried at Avesnes-le-Comete Cemetery in Calais, France.