Major-General Major general (abbreviated MG, maj. gen. and similar) is a military rank used in many countries. It is derived from the older rank of sergeant major general. The disappearance of the "sergeant" in the title explains the apparent confusion of a ...

Sir Colin John Mackenzie (26 November 1861 – 7 July 1956) was a British soldier and

Chief of the General Staff The Chief of the General Staff (CGS) is a post in many armed forces (militaries), the head of the military staff. List * Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff ( United States) * Chief of the General Staff (Abkhazia) * Chief of General Staff (Af ...

, the head of the Canadian Militia (later the

Canadian Army The Canadian Army (french: Armée canadienne) is the command responsible for the operational readiness of the conventional ground forces of the Canadian Armed Forces. It maintains regular forces units at bases across Canada, and is also res ...

), from 1910 until 1913.

Background

Mackenzie was the eldest son of Major-General Colin Mackenzie, of the

Madras Staff Corps The Indian Staff Corps was a branch of the Indian Army during the British Raj. Separate Staff Corps were formed in 1861 for the Bengal, Madras and Bombay Armies, which were later combined into the Indian Army. They were meant to provide officers ...

, by Victoria Henrietta Mackinnon (the eldest daughter of Charles Mackinnon of

Corriechatachan 350px, Corriechatachan ruins, July 2003 Corriechatachan (Gaelic for “ Corrie of the wild cats”) is a farmstead (now ruined), lying at the foot of Beinn na Caillich, near Broadford, on the Isle of Skye. Until the 19th century, it was a tack f ...

). His paternal grandfather, John Mackenzie of Inverness, a banker, was descended from the Mackenzies of Portmore.

Military career

Educated at

Edinburgh Academy The Edinburgh Academy is an independent day school in Edinburgh, Scotland, which was opened in 1824. The original building, on Henderson Row in the city's New Town, is now part of the Senior School. The Junior School is located on Arboretum Ro ...

and at

Royal Military College, Sandhurst The Royal Military College (RMC), founded in 1801 and established in 1802 at Great Marlow and High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire, England, but moved in October 1812 to Sandhurst, Berkshire, was a British Army military academy for training infant ...

, Mackenzie was commissioned into the Bedfordshire Regiment of the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

, at the time the 16th Regiment of Foot in January, 1881, but soon transferred into the Seaforth Highlanders. He took part in the Nile expedition of 1882, the Burma expedition of 1886 and the

Hazara expedition The Hazara Expedition of 1888, also known as the Black Mountain Expedition or the First Hazara Expedition, was a military campaign by the British against the tribes of Kala Dhaka (then known as the Black Mountains of Hazara) in the Hazara regio ...

in 1888, and was promoted to captain on 25 October 1889. Following promotion to major on 27 April 1892, he served as Deputy Assistant Adjutant General for the

Quetta District Quetta ( ps, کوټه, bal, , ur, ) is a district in the north-west of the Balochistan province of Pakistan, on the border with Kandahar province, Afghanistan. It is part of Quetta Division. The district is famous for its agriculture produce, ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

from 1892 to 1896. He also took part in the Waziristan expedition of 1894 and the Nile expedition of 1898. He then attended and later graduated from the Staff College, Camberley. The following year Mackenzie went to

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

on the outbreak of the

Second Boer War The Second Boer War ( af, Tweede Vryheidsoorlog, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, the Anglo–Boer War, or the South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer Republics (the South ...

, and from 1900 he served as Director of Intelligence on the staff of the Commander-in-Chief, Lord Roberts. In a despatch dated 31 March 1900, Lord Roberts described how Mackenzie "afforded … material assistance by the accurate and valuable reports he submitted". He received the brevet rank of lieutenant colonel on 29 November 1900. In the later stages of the war, he became Military Governor of

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Dem ...

. Following the end of hostilities in June 1902, he returned to the United Kingdom in the ''SS Dunottar Castle'', which arrived at

Southampton Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...

the following month. For his service in the war, Mackenzie was appointed a Companion of the

Order of the Bath The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I of Great Britain, George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate medieval ceremony for appointing a knight, which involved Bathing#Medieval ...

(CB) in the April 1901 South Africa Honours list (the award was dated to 29 November 1900), and he received the actual decoration after his return home, from King

Edward VII Edward VII (Albert Edward; 9 November 1841 – 6 May 1910) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and Emperor of India, from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910. The second child and eldest son of Queen Victoria and ...

at Buckingham Palace on 24 October 1902. In September 1902 he received the substantive rank of lieutenant-colonel, and was appointed Assistant Quartermaster General for the

5th Division In military terms, 5th Division may refer to: Infantry divisions * 5th Division (Australia) *5th Division (People's Republic of China) * 5th Division (Colombia) *Finnish 5th Division (Continuation War) * 5th Light Cavalry Division (France) *5th Mo ...

, within the 2nd Army Corps, based in Dover as part of the staff of the South-Eastern military district. He was Assistant Adjutant General at Army Headquarters from 1905 and Commander of 6th Infantry Brigade at Aldershot Command in 1907. From 1910 to 1913, he was Chief of the General Staff, Canada. His departure from that post was caused in part by a disagreement between Mackenzie and

Sam Hughes Sir Samuel Hughes, (January 8, 1853 – August 23, 1921) was the Canadian Minister of Militia and Defence during World War I. He was notable for being the last Liberal-Conservative cabinet minister, until he was dismissed from his cabinet post ...

, the Canadian Minister of Militia and Defence, as to (among other things) the merits of the Ross rifle. Mackenzie subsequently regarded himself as vindicated by the Ross rifle's unsuitability for combat conditions on the Western Front. On 3 March 1914, he became General Officer Commanding the Highland Division. He served in the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

as General Officer Commanding the Highland Division, as General Officer Commanding

9th (Scottish) Division The 9th (Scottish) Division, was an infantry division of the British Army during the First World War, one of the Kitchener's Army divisions raised from volunteers by Lord Kitchener to serve on the Western Front during the First World War. A ...

, as General Officer Commanding

15th (Scottish) Division The 15th (Scottish) Infantry Division was an infantry division of the British Army that served in the First World War. The 15th (Scottish) Division was formed from men volunteering for Kitchener's Army, and served from 1915 to 1918 on the West ...

and as General Officer Commanding 3rd Division on the Western Front all in 1914. He took over 3rd Division following the death in action of Major-General

Hubert Hamilton Major-General Hubert Ion Wetherall Hamilton, (27 June 1861 – 14 October 1914) was a senior British Army officer who served with distinction throughout his career, seeing battle in the Mahdist War in Egypt and the Second Boer War in South Afric ...

; however he only lasted for two weeks in this post before he was relieved of his command following the inconclusive result at the

Battle of La Bassée The Battle of La Bassée was fought by German and Franco-British forces in northern France in October 1914, during reciprocal attempts by the contending armies to envelop the northern flank of their opponent, which has been called the Race to th ...

in October 1914. He went on to be Director of Staff Duties at the

War Office The War Office was a department of the British Government responsible for the administration of the British Army between 1857 and 1964, when its functions were transferred to the new Ministry of Defence (MoD). This article contains text from ...

in 1915 and General Officer Commanding 61st Division from February 1916 and was engaged in the disastrous diversionary battle for the Somme offensive at

Fromelles Fromelles () is a commune in the Nord department in northern France. it had a population of 1,041; its inhabitants are called ''Fromellois''. It is located about to the west of Lille. First World War The village of Fromelles was captured by a ...

on 19 July 1916. This operation led to the death of many Australian and British soldiers and achieved nothing. Casualties were: 5th Australian Division had 5,513 casualties and the 61st British Division had 1,547 casualties. Mackenzie himself was wounded by an enemy sniper on 27 April 1918 while he was visiting the line of the 183rd Brigade south of St. Floris, being shot through the cheek and

parotid gland The parotid gland is a major salivary gland in many animals. In humans, the two parotid glands are present on either side of the mouth and in front of both ears. They are the largest of the salivary glands. Each parotid is wrapped around the ma ...

. The wound did not respond to treatment and he was evacuated sick to England on 31 May 1918. Thereafter, Mackenzie was Inspector of Infantry in 1918 and Commander of the Dover Area 1919 until his retirement from the army on 1 April 1920. Between 1924 and 1931, he was Colonel of the Seaforth Highlanders.

Family

Mackenzie married Ethel Ross, the daughter of Hercules Grey Ross I.C.S. and Mary Henderson. They had one son, Colin Hercules Mackenzie.Mosley, Charles, editor. Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, 107th edition, 3 volumes. Wilmington, Delaware, U.S.A.: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 2003.

References

Bibliography

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Background

Military career

Family

References

Bibliography

Further reading