George Yull Mackie, Baron Mackie of Benshie OBE DSO DFC (10 July 1919 – 17 February 2015)^[1] was a British Liberal and Liberal Democrat politician.

Early life

Mackie was born in Tarves, Aberdeenshire, the son of Dr Maitland Mackie, OBE, and his wife Mary (née Yull). He was educated at Aberdeen Grammar School and Aberdeen University.^[2] His older brothers were Sir Maitland Mackie and John Mackie, Baron John-Mackie, a future Labour MP.

In 1940 Mackie was commissioned in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve. He served with RAF Bomber Command and was awarded the Distinguished Service Order^[3] and Distinguished Flying Cross.^[4] After the Second World War, he took over a farm at Benshie, Angus, and subsequently set up a cattle ranch at Braeroy, Inverness-shire, near Spean Bridge.^[5]

Political career

Having first contested South Angus as a Liberal in 1959, he was elected Member of Parliament for Caithness and Sutherland in 1964. In the Commons he served as a Liberal party whip. He lost his seat in 1966, when he was defeated by the Labour candidate Robert Maclennan, who was to become a party colleague of Mackie in the late 1980s after he joined the Liberal Democrats via the SDP. Mackie contested Caithness and Sutherland again in 1970, but lost by a wider margin.

Having been appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1971,^[6] he was given a life peerage, as Baron Mackie of Benshie, of Kirriemuir in the County of Angus on 10 May 1974.^[7] In the House of Lords, he served as Agriculture and Scottish Affairs spokesman for the Liberals and their successor parties between 1975 and 2000. Having been chair of the Scottish Liberal Party from 1965 to 1970, he was its president between 1983 and 1988. In 1980, he was elected to serve a three-year term as Rector of the University of Dundee.^[2]

Death and legacy

Until his death, Mackie was the oldest living person to have served as a Liberal Member of Parliament in the United Kingdom.^[5] His death was announced on 17 February 2015. He was 95 years old.^[5][8]

Mackie's papers are held by Archive Services at the University of Dundee.^[9]

Personal life

Mackie married firstly, in 1944, Lindsay, daughter of lawyer Alexander Sharp, of Aberdeen. They had three daughters, the eldest of whom, Lindsay, married the journalist Alan Rusbridger.^[10][11] Mackie married secondly, in 1988, Jacqueline, daughter of Colonel Marcel Rauch, of the French Air Force.^[12]

Sources

• Parliament.uk Biography, parliament.uk; accessed 15 November 2015.
• Leigh Rayment's Peerage Pages ^{[self-published source] [better source needed]}
• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs