Manchester born Elias MacDonald was the youngest of 5 or 6 children of parents who were both deaf and dumb and during his early teenage years he moved to Derby to live with a sister. During WW1 he served in Ireland but then upon his return was apprenticed to Rolls Royce, “Mac” subsequently had two spells with Derby County. Although they were struggling in Division I, and relegated in 1921, he never made the first-team and was playing non-league football in nearby Burton when he came to the attention of Southampton. Despite that lack of pedigree, he was introduced by the Echo, as being

a “fine winger”.

Then, after waiting half-a-season for a first-team outing, he did not disappoint their reporter, in whose judgment

“he could not have made a happier start and did his job without frills.”

He kept his place for the remainder of the season and yet was made available for transfer, at the end of it. The official reason submitted to the Football League when advising them of his availability was he “never reached expectations”. Then, despite being a Third South regular with Southend in 1924-25, he spent the next four seasons in the Third North, successively with Southport, Doncaster and Barrow. After which, he played non-league football in the north-west, before ending up with the works-team at Rolls Royce, back in Derby while employed as a capstan lathe operator on aero engines. He finished with Rolls Royce in 1945 and went into hotel management – having started at Barrow – and had a succession of hostelries. Around the time his wife died in 1972 he moved to the Gordon Hotel in Rochester, where he died three days before his 80th birthday.