| James Scott Macdonald | |
| Birth Date: | 1896 |
| Birth Place: | Goldenville, Nova Scotia |
| Death Place: | Amherstview, Ontario |
| Resting Place: | Riverside Cemetery, Napanee |
| Occupation: | Diplomat |
| Spouse: | Caroline Ruth Wilson |
| Office1: | Canadian Ambassador to Austria |
| Term Start1: | 1957 |
| Term End1: | 1961 |
| Predecessor1: | Gordon Edwin Cox |
| Successor1: | Klaus Goldschlag |
| Office2: | Canadian Ambassador to Yugoslavia |
| Term Start2: | 1951 |
| Term End2: | 1956 |
| Predecessor2: | Gordon Gale Crean |
| Successor2: | George Ignatieff |
| Office3: | Canadian Ambassador to Brazil |
| Term Start3: | 1948 |
| Term End3: | 1951 |
| Predecessor3: | Evan Benjamin Rogers |
| Successor3: | Ephraim Herbert Coleman |
| Office4: | Canadian High Commissioner to the Dominion of Newfoundland |
| Term Start4: | 1944 |
| Term End4: | 1948 |
| Predecessor4: | Hugh Llewellyn Keenleyside |
| Successor4: | Paul Augustus Bridle |
James Scott Macdonald (1896-1985) was a Canadian career diplomat. He was born in Goldenville, Nova Scotia. He graduated Queen's University, and served in the First World War from 1915 to 1919.[1] He was married to Caroline Ruth Wilson (1899–1986).[2]
Macdonald worked for the Department of Trade and Commerce from 1926 until 1928 and then was appointed to the Department of External Affairs in 1928, where he served in postings in Paris, Geneva, and Washington. He acted as a technical advisor on trade negotiations with France and Australia and was Secretary of the Canadian delegation at the Imperial Economic Conference of 1932. He was also acting Under-Secretary of State for External Affairs in 1937.[1]
He served as Canadian High Commissioner to Newfoundland from 1944 to 1948, Canadian Ambassador to Brazil from 1948 to 1951, to Yugoslavia from 1951 to 1956, and to Austria from 1957 to 1961.[3]
In the latter role, he helped facilitate the immigration to Canada of Hungarian forestry students from Sopron University who had fled to refugee camps in Austria after the Hungarian Revolution of 1956.[4]
He died in Amherstview on September 3, 1985.[5]