Philanthropy

Apart from his commitments to business and finance, Dr Macaulay was also a respected humanitarian, who busied himself with numerous goodwill causes. With several friends from his Bible discussion group he formed the Welcome Hall Mission in 1892.

The aim of the mission was to assist the young men whom he encountered as a parishioner at the Calvary Congregational Church and it fed those people, and offered a bed and spiritual guidance. In 1992 the Mission celebrated its 100th year of continuous operation, and it still exists today. Macaulay also found time to organise summer camps for underprivileged boys from Montreal’s slums.

T.B. Macaulay’s 1929 visit to his experimental farm on Lewis

Despite adopting numerous roles in the country of his birth, and immersing himself fully in the Canadian way of life, T.B. Macaulay remained proud of his Scottish heritage. Like many immigrants of Scottish descent, Dr Macaulay wished to share his prosperity with the country of his forbears. An early benefaction saw him choose his father’s native town of Fraserburgh, creating a Macaulay fund of over £10,000 to assist the town’s seafaring people. He contributed generously to the Memorial Hall and founded bursaries for the pupils of Fraserburgh Academy.

He made a gift of £30,000 to animal breeding research at Edinburgh University and the island of Lewis was also a recipient of Macaulay’s generosity. He gave a substantial endowment to the island’s public library, erected a new wing in its local hospital and established the Macaulay Experimental Farm.

In 1930 he donated the capital to purchase the fifty acre estate in Aberdeen’s Craigiebuckler - establishing the Macaulay Institute for Soil Research, as it was then known.

In recognition of his benefactions, Aberdeen University conferred Macaulay with an honorary degree and Stornoway made him the first Freeman of the burgh for 300 years.

Farming