Photo taken in the library at a DEW Line Station in 1965

Harold (Hal) Stanley MacGregor was born in Digby, Nova Scotia, and was raised in the village of Bear River, (the "Switzerland" of Nova Scotia). At 15, he joined the RCAF Reserve in Toronto, at 16, he joined the Canadian Army Reserve, West Nova Scotia Regiment.  At 17, he graduated from Digby Regional High School and joined the Royal Canadian Air Force to became an Electronics Technician.  At 25, he spent a year on the Distant Early Warning line on Baffin Island working for Federal Electric Corporation of Paramus, New Jersey as a Radician.

At 26, he joined the Canadian Coast Guard and was assigned to the heavy Icebreaker, CCGS Labrador, as Telecom Officer.  At 28, he became a Ship Electronics Project Officer at Transport Canada Atlantic Regional Headquarters in Moncton, New Brunswick.  At 31, he became a Flight Inspection Officer at Transport Canada Atlantic Regional Headquarters.  At 34, he was seconded to the Canadian Coast Guard, based at Dartmouth, Nova Scotia as the Regional Ship Electronics Project Supervisor, responsible for the installation of all electronic equipment in non-military government ships throughout Atlantic Canada.

At 42, he was the Telecom Logistics Officer at Canadian Coast Guard Headquarters in Ottawa.  At 44, he was appointed to the Canadian Coast Guard, Western Region Headquarters in Vancouver, British Columbia as Ship Electronics Project Supervisor.  At 46, he was appointed the Chief of Electronic Inspection in the Inspections and Technical Services branch of the Aerospace, Marine and Electronic Systems division of the Department of Supply and Services of Canada in Ottawa.  At 48, he was appointed as Flight Inspection Standards Officer with Transport Canada's Microwave Landing System Major Crown Project in Ottawa.

At 55, he retired from the Canadian Public Service, to a farm in Montague Township in Lanark County in Eastern Ontario, where he raised Wild Boars, Siberian Huskies, Pigeons and Highland Cattle.

Hal was the founding President of the Moncton Area Aquarium Society, also the Executive Director of the Moncton Fish and Game Protective Association Junior Branch in New Brunswick, and was a Charter Member of The Shubenacadie Lakes Conservation Association of Nova Scotia, and was Secretary of the Ottawa Valley Rabbit Producers Association in Ontario.  He is a Director of the Lanark Landowners Association and of the Ontario Landowners Association.

Hal has written and published four non-fiction books, including one about Wolves, Coyotes and their Hybrids, two histories of the Picts of Albann (Scotland), and Ulster, and one about the misadventures of a MacGregor threesome vacationing in Costa Rica.   

Hal is an Internationally recognized author and researcher, and is a leading authority of the indigenous people of Britain, the Picts.  He has presented copies of his books to schools and libraries on four continents.  He recently toured Scotland and England for 30 days, where he presented twenty five copies of three of his books to leading Universities and Libraries.  He is registered with Archives Canada and with the National Library of Canada.  He has five children, nine grand children and two siblings, all living in Canada.

Photo taken by Desmond Devoy of EMC Record News 15th Feb 2012

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 h.macgregor@xplornet.ca