Macaulay was educated at
Eton College, where he played for the college "soccer" team in 1878. He went up to
King's College, Cambridge, where he won a
Cambridge University "
Blue" in 1881 and 1882. He continued to play for the
Old Etonians whilst at university, helping them reach successive
finals from
1881 to
1883, losing out 3–0 to
Old Carthusians in 1881 and going down to a surprise 2–1 defeat to
Blackburn Olympic in 1883. In the
1882 FA Cup Final, however, he contributed to the only goal in a 1–0 victory over
Blackburn Rovers, although reporters differed as to how he played. According to a match report in Gibbons' "Association Football in Victorian England", "following an expert through ball by
Dunn, Macaulay (
sic) steered the ball between the Blackburn goalposts to secure a well-deserved half-time lead". However, reporters from two of the sports journals represented,
The Sportsman and
The Field, both reported Macaulay making a run to pass the ball to
Arthur Dunn who in turn passed it to
William Anderson, who then scored the goal. Macaulay, according to a tribute printed after his death in
The Times, liked to recall he outpaced the Blackburn players and helped towards the goal, without claiming to score. 6–1 defeat.
C.W. Alcock described Macaulay as "fast on the side, and works hard. Heavy centre-forward. Can make a good run, has plenty of pace but over-runs the ball and is not clever in close quarters", while another summary noted he was "a good shot at goal". He also played (when they and the Old Etonians were not competing in the FA Cup ties) for
Clapham Rovers. On leaving university, he went to work in India. From 1884 to his returning to England in 1901, he was a merchant with Wallace & Co of
Bombay and chairman of the Bombay Burmah Trading Corporation. He was also a member of the
Bombay Legislative Council. In London he became an East India
merchant in Wallace & Co. ==Retirement and later life==