Frederick Albert McDonald (c. 1872? April 1926) was an Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

n politician and possible murder victim. Educated at public schools and at the University of Sydney

University of Sydney

The University of Sydney is a public university located in Sydney, New South Wales. The main campus spreads across the suburbs of Camperdown and Darlington on the southwestern outskirts of the Sydney CBD. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and Oceania...

, McDonald became a teacher and rose to become President of the Teachers Federation of New South Wales. In the 1922 federal election

Australian federal election, 1922

Federal elections were held in Australia on 16 December 1922. All 75 seats in the House of Representatives, and 19 of the 36 seats in the Senate were up for election. The incumbent Nationalist Party of Australia led by Prime Minister of Australia Billy Hughes lost its majority...

 he contested the new seat of Barton

Division of Barton

The Division of Barton is an Australian Electoral Division in New South Wales. The division was created in 1922 and is named for Sir Edmund Barton, the first Prime Minister of Australia...

 for the Labor Party

Australian Labor Party

The Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia...

, defeating the Nationalist

Nationalist Party of Australia

The Nationalist Party of Australia was an Australian political party. It was formed on 17 February 1917 from a merger between the conservative Commonwealth Liberal Party and the National Labor Party, the name given to the pro-conscription defectors from the Australian Labor Party led by Prime...

 member for the abolished seat of Illawarra

Division of Illawarra

The Division of Illawarra was an Australian Electoral Division in the state of New South Wales. It covered part of the Illawarra region, after which it was named. The Division was proclaimed in 1900, and was one of the original 75 divisions to be contested at the first Federal election. It was...

, Hector Lamond

Hector Lamond

Hector Lamond was an Australian politician.Lamond was born at Broughton Creek, near Berry, New South Wales and educated at public schools. He was apprenticed as a printer to the Carcoar Chronicle when he was 14 and was its editor at 25. He was involved in the establishment of the Australian...

.

Disappearance

McDonald remained in parliament until 1925

Australian federal election, 1925

Federal elections were held in Australia on 14 November 1925. All 75 seats in the House of Representatives, and 22 of the 36 seats in the Senate were up for election...

, when he was narrowly defeated by Nationalist candidate Thomas Ley. McDonald challenged the result in court, claiming that Ley had tried to bribe him. However, McDonald subsequently vanished on his way to a meeting with New South Wales Premier Jack Lang

Jack Lang (Australian politician)

John Thomas Lang , usually referred to as J.T. Lang during his career, and familiarly known as "Jack" and nicknamed "The Big Fella" was an Australian politician who was Premier of New South Wales for two terms...

, and was never seen again. Ley was later deemed insane after committing murder in England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

, and was committed to Broadmoor Hospital

Broadmoor Hospital

Broadmoor Hospital is a high-security psychiatric hospital at Crowthorne in the Borough of Bracknell Forest in Berkshire, England. It is the best known of the three high-security psychiatric hospitals in England, the other two being Ashworth and Rampton...

; it is believed Ley was also responsible for McDonald's disappearance.