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THE REV. F. C. AND MRS. MACDONALD
A very interesting meeting took place in the Assembly Room at Headquarters on the 6th March, when the Rev. F. C. and Mrs.
Macdonald visited Stepney to say good-bye to their colleagues, on their retirement as Heads of Goldings. At the Devotional
Meeting which preceded the farewell meeting, Mr. Macdonald delivered a very helpful address based on the words of Christ to
Pilate, "Sayest thou this of thyself, or did others tell it thee concerning Me?"— St. John, 18: 34.
At the farewell meeting Mr. Tetley, as Chairman of the Goldings Sub-Committee, took the chair and spoke most appreciatively
of the twenty years' service which Mr. and Mrs. Macdonald had given at Goldings, and of the influence which had been exerted
on the lives of the boys who had passed through that branch during that period. He quoted a sentence from the inaugural address
delivered by a former Goldings boy, the Rev. Bazil Cozens, on his induction as Minister of a Congregational Church at Stone,
Staffordshire. After stating that to Dr. Barnardo's Homes he owed his first experience of real Christianity, both in faith and in
practice, Mr. Cozens, referring to the Rev. F. C. Macdonald, said, "To him and to others like him responsible for the Christian
upbringing of hundreds of boys and girls, among whom I had the honour to be one, I pay this tribute". Mr. Tetley then presented
Mr. and Mrs. Macdonald with a testimonial which took the form of a cheque (to which members of the Council, staff, and many
of the boys, had contributed), together with a small album containing the names of the contributors.
Mr. Macdonald, in expressing the grateful thanks of Mrs. Macdonald and himself, said he felt he had been very privileged to have
had some share in helping to shape the lives of the boys who had come under his care, and he was delighted to know that so many
of them had happy memories of their life at Goldings.
The following message, which has since been received from Mr. Macdonald, will, we know, be read with much interest, especially
by those who were unable to be present at the farewell gathering—
"I have just returned from my brief visit to Stepney, and I feel I must write at once to say how grateful Mrs. Macdonald and I are
for all the kindness and goodwill shewn us by our Barnardo friends. We are both humbled by the generous words of Mr. Tetley,
and we were quite overwhelmed when we discovered that 'the thin slip of paper in an envelope' was a cheque for no less than £65.
It is physically impossible to write to you all, but to the members of Council, the Staff and the Old Boys and Girls we send our
warmest gratitude. We shall treasure the Book of Names, so beautifully inscribed by Mr. Northam, and we feel that strong links
of friendship have been forged which will bind us always to Dr. Barnardo's Homes."
March 1945
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