Donald Macleod Matheson

Donald Macleod Matheson CBE was a member of the War Works Commission, and Secretary to the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or [Natural Beauty|National Trust] from 1934 to 1945. Active within the Traditionalist School as a translator and author, he founded The Matheson Trust for the study of comparative religion. He was a sibling of Hilda Matheson. As the National Trust secretary, he was at the receiving end of some of the Ferguson's Gang’s exploits.

Life

Born into an aristocratic Scottish family, Matheson was educated at Balliol College, Oxford. After serving in the artillery during World War I, he held the post of Secretary to the National Trust, which with the years earned him an appointment as CBE in 1945. Matheson was a close friend of G. E. H. Palmer. He worked as a Director for John Smedley until his retirement in 1967. Matheson maintained associations with Perennialist authors for many years, and his translations of French works by Schuon and Burckhardt were published in the UK, India and Pakistan. Some of his translations were made in collaboration with Buddhist scholar Marco Pallis.

The National Trust: A Record of Fifty Years' Achievement . London: B.T. Batsford, Ltd., 1946.
Places of Natural Beauty. London: B.T. Batsford, Ltd., 1950.
Science and the Myth of Progress, Bloomington, IN: World Wisdom, 2003.

Schuon, Frithjof, Spiritual Perspectives and Human Facts. London: Faber and Faber, 1954.
———, Castes and Races, trans. Marco Pallis and Macleod Matheson. Pates Manor, Bedfont, Middlesex: Perennial Books, 1959.
———, Language of the Self, trans. Marco Pallis and Macleod Matheson. Madras: Ganesh, 1959.
———, Understanding Islam. London: Allen & Unwin, 1963, 1976, 1979; Baltimore, Maryland: Penguin Books, 1972.
Burckhardt, Titus, An Introduction to Sufi Doctrine. Wellingborough, Northamptonshire: Thorsons Publishers Ltd, 1976.