Donald MacGregor was born on November 21, 1914, the only son of Donald Cameron MacGregor and Margaret Ellen  (nee MacEachern) MacGregor, of 208 South Mitton Street, Sarnia. Donald had one sister, Mary Turnbull, of Sarnia. Donald attended elementary school in Sarnia and Peru, where he lived for a few years while his father was employed in the oil industry. He returned to Sarnia and graduated from Sarnia Collegiate, where he was an outstanding athlete, a member of the school’s football teams, swimming team and gymnastics team that won the junior championship of Canada in 1932. Donald was a member of St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church. For two years prior to enlistment, he had spent his summers as athletic and swimming instructor at the Lion’s Boy’s Camp at Seaforth. His hobbies in his later years had been golfing and swimming, and he became well known throughout the district as sound-truck assistant to Fred Smith. Donald, single at the time, was in his fourth year of a chemistry course at the Ontario Agricultural College, Guelph, when he enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force.

Donald had flown over Sarnia during his elementary training flights from Crumlin airport, near London. After Crumlin, he graduated from Uplands Advanced Flying Training School, with a high rating as a fighter pilot. He arrived overseas less than two months prior to his death. Donald MacGregor was a member of the RCAF #286 Squadron, flying an Oxford aircraft DF253 as a sergeant-pilot. On May 11, 1942, his Oxford aircraft crashed at Dymonds Farm, Clyst, Honiton, near the aerodrome at RAF Station, Colerne, England. The next day, his parents Donald and Margaret in Sarnia would receive the telegram informing them that their only son had lost his life while on active service over England, with no other details given. Along with Sergeant-Pilot Donald MacGregor, two RAF members of the crew were also killed. Donald MacGregor would later officially be listed as, Killed during flying operations, overseas. Twenty-seven year old Donald MacGregor is buried in Exeter Higher Cemetery, Devon, United Kingdom, Section Z.K. Grave 54.

SOURCES: A, B, C, D, E, F, G, J, L, M, N, 2C, 2D