R. D. (Roelof Daniel) Mc Donald

R. D. Mc Donald, also recorded as Roelof Daniel McDonald, was a South African writer born in 1873 and died in 1949. He is chiefly remembered for In the Shadow of Death (1904), written with General P. H. Kritzinger and later preserved by Project Gutenberg.

The book presents the Anglo-Boer War from the authors' own perspective and was originally printed for private circulation. In its preface, the writers explain that they wanted to recount their experiences frankly while avoiding bitterness, which gives the book much of its lasting interest as a personal historical record.

Reliable biographical detail about Mc Donald appears to be limited in the sources I could confirm during this search, so it is safest to describe him mainly through the work that survives under his name. Even so, that memoir has kept his voice in circulation as part of the literature of the Boer War.