Fuller's father, James Fuller, migrated from Ireland in 1855 and settled in Picton, in Marlborough. James Fuller's sisters were the first white women in Picton. In 1862 James Fuller married a Miss McCormick, a member of another family of early settlers in Marlborough. Donald Fuller was one of their nine children.[1]
On his first-class debut in February 1890, Donald Fuller made Wellington's highest score in the match when he scored 42 in the second innings against the touring New South Wales team.[2] In his next match he top-scored in Wellington's first innings with 33 not out against Canterbury on the first day when 32 wickets fell for 242 runs.[3] He made his highest first-class score of 56 against Hawke's Bay in 1892–93, when the next-highest individual score in the match was 37.[4] He was noted for his fast scoring, and was described in 1894 as a "peculiar but most successful batsman" and a fine fieldsman.[5][6]
Fuller worked for Messrs Thomas Ballinger and Co. Ltd. in Wellington, a metal works and electrical engineering company, from 1884 to 1907, starting as an office boy and working his way up to a directorship.[7] When he left the firm he went into partnership with his brother as a storekeeper in Seddon, in Marlborough.[8]
He married Nellie Fraser in Wellington in July 1896.[9] He had been retired and living in Picton for some years when he died in May 1936, survived by Nellie, a daughter and a son.[8]