Gordon Donaldson was born in Leith on 13 April 1913. He was educated at the Royal High School, and then he studied History at Edinburgh University where he obtained a First Class Honours degree. His postgraduate study was conducted at the Institute of Historical Research, University of London. After graduating PhD. in 1938, and having returned to Edinburgh with medical problems ruling out military service, Donaldson was appointed as an assistant in the Scottish Record Office where he became skilled as a reader of difficult early-medieval and late-medieval manuscripts. Throughout his life he maintained an interest in the material there, making an enormous contribution to the editing of historical records. In 1947 he became a Lecturer in Scottish History at Edinburgh University. In 1955 he was appointed Reader, and in 1963 he was awarded the Chair of Professor of Scottish History and Palaeography. In 1979, Donaldson was appointed Historiographer to the Queen in Scotland. One of his chief interests was the study of ecclesiastical history. His output of edited texts, books, articles and reviews was immense and included The making of the Scottish prayer book of 1637 (1954), Scotland - James V to James VII (1965), Scotland - Church and nation through sixteen centuries (1960), Isles of home - Sixty years of Shetland (1984), Scottish church history (1985), The faith of the Scots (1990). Between 1972 and 1977 he was Editor of the Scottish Historical Review and had also been Editor of the Register of the Privy Seal of Scotland . In 1988, he was awarded the CBE. Gordon Donaldson died in Cameron Hospital, Windygates, Fife, on 16 March 1993.
From the guide to the Papers of Professor Gordon Donaldson (1913-1993), 1549-1993, (Edinburgh University Library)
