Profiles

Guernsey is the last resting place for a rather unusual Scotsman who was known as 'a modern Hercules' measuring in some accounts as seven feet four inches tall.

Sergeant Samuel MacDonald, of the 93rd Regiment the Sutherland Highlanders, was said to be a man of immense size and strength.

He paraded at the head of his Regiment leading their mascot, a red deer.

Sam came to Guernsey when his regiment were stationed at Fort George in 1800 and he died two years later at the age of 41.

He was buried in what was Stranger's Cemetery in Upland Road under a headstone which said he had served in the army for 24 years, had been "six feet ten inches in height, well proportioned, and of uncommon strength" and was born in the County of Sutherland, Scotland.

A close up of the memorial plaque

When 2,650 bodies were exhumed, to be reburied elsewhere to allow for building work, it was found in the records that the Sergeant had been buried there but his headstone had disappeared.

St Peter Port Constables and the successor to the 93rd, The Argyle and Sutherland Highlanders, shared the cost of a new headstone. It was to serve as a memorial to all the servicemen buried in Stranger's Cemetery who had died while protecting Guernsey and was dedicated on 9 May 1988.

There are many stories of the Sam's exploits involving his immense strength, so here are just a few:

One sees him carry a cannon barrel into a guard house during one cold Winter night so he can stay warm while obeying his orders to keep watch on the gun.

Another that the Countess of Sutherland gave him an allowance of two shillings and sixpence a day to buy food as she thought the soldiers' diet "could not adequately nourish this huge specimen".

One of the commonest says that his mother was unable to nurse him and he was fed milk from his father's mare which was the reason for his great strength.