Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Macintyre, Donald
MACINTYRE, DONALD (1831–1903), major-general Bengal staff corps, born at Kincraig House, Ross-shire, on 12 Sept. 1831, was second son of Donald Macintyre of Calcutta by his wife Margaret, daughter of John Mackenzie of Kincraig House, Ross-shire. Educated at private schools in England and abroad, he was at the East India Company's Military College, Addiscombe, from 1848 to 1850, obtained his first commission in the Bengal army on 14 June 1850.
With the 66th Gurkhas he served under Sir Colin Campbell, afterwards Lord Clyde [q. v.] in the two expeditions of 1852 against the hill tribes on the Peshawar frontier, including the destruction of the fortified village of Pranghur and the action at Ishkakot. He also joined the expeditionary force against the Boree Afridis in Nov. 1853. In 1856 he took part with the 66th Gurkhas in the expedition under Sir Neville Chamberlain [q. V. Suppl. II] to Kuram Valley, Afghanistan, and with the Doaba field force in Peshawar Valley in 1864, receiving the medal with clasp. He was made lieutenant on 23 Nov. 1856. During 1857 and 1858, when engaged in raising an extra Gurkha regiment (now the 4th Gurkhas), he took part in protecting the hill passes on the Kale Kumaon frontier from the Rohilkund rebels and in keeping the district in order. For these services he was awarded a medal. He was promoted captain in June 1862 and major on 14 June 1870. He served with the Lushai expedition in 1871-2, being several times mentioned in despatches, and being made brevet lieut.-colonel on 11 Sept. 1872. For an act of gallantry in this campaign, at the storming of the stockaded village of Lalgnoora on 4 Jan. 1872, he received the Victoria Cross. Macintyre, who was serving as second in command to Colonel (Sir) Herbert Macpherson, C.B., V.C., commanding the 2nd Gurkhas, while leading the assault, was the first to reach the stockade, which was from 8 to 9 feet high. To climb over it and disappear among the flames and smoke of the burning village was the work of a very short time. The stockade was successfully stormed by Macintyre under the heaviest fire which the Lushai delivered that day.
Macintyre, who became lieut.-colonel on 14 Jan. 1876 and colonel on 1 Oct. 1887, commanded the 2nd Prince of Wales's Own Gurkhas with Sir Garnet Wolseley's force at the occupation of Cyprus and also with the Khyber column, directed against the Zakha Khel Afridis, in the Afghan war of 1878-9. He was also in both expeditions to the Bazar Valley under Lieut.-general Sir Francis Maude, V.C. (medal). He retired with the rank of major-general on 24 Dec. 1880, and thenceforth lived at Mackenzie Lodge, Fortrose, Ross-shire. Macintyre, who was a traveller and sportsman, published an account of his experiences in 'Hindu Koh, Wanderings and Wild Sports on and beyond the Himalayas' (1889; new edit. 1891). He was a J.P. for Ross-shire and an F.R.G.S. He died at Fortrose on 15 April 1903 and was buried in Rosemarkie churchyard. He married Angehca, daughter of the Rev. T. J. Patteson, Kirmetties, Forfar.
[The Times,, 17 April 1903; Hart's and Official Army Lists; W. H. Paget, Record of Expeditions against the North-West Frontier Tribes, 1884, p. 296; Who's Who, 1902.]