Robert Mackenzie (died 15 May 1853) was a trader and co-founder of the Mackinnon Mackenzie Company, now known as

Inchcape plc Inchcape plc is a British Multinational corporation, multinational automotive distribution, retail and services company headquartered in London, England. An outgrowth of Calcutta-based Mackinnon Mackenzie Company, Inchcape has operations in 3 ...

Career

Born in

Campbeltown Campbeltown (; or ) is a town and former royal burgh in Argyll and Bute, Scotland. It lies by Campbeltown Loch on the Kintyre Peninsula. Campbeltown became an important centre for Scotch whisky, and a busy fishing port. The 2018 populatio ...

Argyll Argyll (; archaically Argyle; , ), sometimes called Argyllshire, is a Shires of Scotland, historic county and registration county of western Scotland. The county ceased to be used for local government purposes in 1975 and most of the area ...

, Robert Mackenzie went out to

Calcutta Kolkata, also known as Calcutta (List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern ba ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

where, in 1836, he set up an oil goods import and export business and also became involved in the coasting trade around the

Bay of Bengal The Bay of Bengal is the northeastern part of the Indian Ocean. Geographically it is positioned between the Indian subcontinent and the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese peninsula, located below the Bengal region. Many South Asian and Southe ...

.British India History
/ref>William Mackinnon at Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
/ref> In 1847, together with William Mackinnon, he co-founded the Mackinnon Mackenzie Company which went on to become a major trading house, shipping goods from

to the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

. Mackenzie chose

Ghazipur Ghazipur, is a city in the state of Uttar Pradesh, India. Ghazipur city is the administrative headquarters of the Ghazipur district, one of the four districts that form the Varanasi division of Uttar Pradesh. It is located on the Ganges (Ganga) ...

as the base for his own activities. In 1853 Mackenzie set out for

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

to seek out trading opportunities for the McKinnon Mackenzie Company. He died on board the SS ''Monumental City'' which was shipwrecked off the coast of

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Queen Victoria (1819–1901), Queen of the United Kingdom and Empress of India * Victoria (state), a state of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, a provincial capital * Victoria, Seychelles, the capi ...

, near

Gabo Island Gabo Island is a island located off the coast of eastern Victoria, Australia, between Mallacoota and Cape Howe on the border with New South Wales. It is separated from the mainland by a channel; access is available by arranged flights and ...

on 15 May 1853.Victoria Archaeological Survey Occasional Reports Series Number 24

References

1853 deaths Year of birth missing Scottish businesspeople {{UK-business-bio-stub