(1898– ).

New Zealand High Commissioner in London.

A new biography of Macdonald, Thomas Lachlan appears in the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography on this site.

Thomas Lachlan Macdonald was born in Invercargill on 14 December 1898 and educated at Southland Boys' High School. During the First World War he served as a purser on Union Steamship Co. vessels and was in the First New Zealand Expeditionary Force 1918–19. After his discharge he went on the land, farming at Tapanui. He served in the Second World War from 1940 to 1943. In 1938 he entered Parliament, representing Mataura and, from 1947, Wallace. In the National Government he was Minister for Rehabilitation (1949–54), for Defence (1949–57), for Civil Aviation (1950–54), and for External Affairs and Island Territories (1954–57). He was appointed High Commissioner in London in 1961 and made K.C.M.G. in 1963.