Alexander Mackenzie (civil servant)
{{Short description|British colonial administrator (1842–1902)}}
{{Other people|Alexander Mackenzie}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2019}}
{{Use British English|date=March 2013}}
{{Infobox person
| honorific-prefix =
| name = Sir Alexander Mackenzie
| honorific-suffix = {{post-nominals|country=GBR|KCSI}}
| image = Alexander_Mackenzie Bengal.jpg
| caption =
| birth_date = {{birth_date|1842|6|28|df=y}}
| birth_place = Dumfries, Scotland
| death_date = {{death date and age|1902|11|10|1842|6|28|df=y}}
| death_place = Holmbury St Mary, Surrey, England
| death_cause =
| known_for =
| occupation = colonial governor
| signature =
}}
Sir Alexander Mackenzie, {{post-nominals|country=GBR|KCSI}} (28 June 1842 – 10 November 1902) was a British colonial official in India, who served as Chief Commissioner of the British Crown Colony of Burma from 1890 to 1895, and as Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal from 1895 to 1898.{{cite news |title=Death of Sir Alexander MacKenzie |url=http://www.brebner.com/obituaries/alex_mackenzie_obit.pdf |work=The Scotsman |date=12 November 1902 |page=11 |via=brebner.com}}{{Cite newspaper The Times |title= Obituaries - Sir Alexander Mackenzie |date=11 November 1902 |page=5 |issue=36922}}
Background
Mackenzie was born in Dumfries, Scotland, to Reverend John R. Mackenzie and Alexanderina Mackenzie, and as a child moved with his parents to Birmingham, where his father worked for many years. He attended King Edward's School and Trinity College, Cambridge. Upon obtaining his BA and completion of his Indian Civil Service exams, Mackenzie joined the Bengal Civil Service and went to Calcutta in 1862.
Early career
Mackenzie subsequently held a number of civil service appointments in the Bengal Presidency and British India. He was Secretary to the Bengali Government from 1877, and made a name for himself by compiling a history of the relations of the government with tribes on the north-east frontier of Bengal. In 1882 he was appointed Secretary in the Home Department of the Government of India. Five years later he received a senior colonial appointment as Chief Commissioner of the Central Provinces in 1887, and in December 1890 transferred to become Chief Commissioner of British Burma, where he stayed until 1895. The same year he was appointed a Member of the Council of the Governor General of India.
In 1891 he became a Knight Commander of the Order of the Star of India (KCSI).
Bengal
After his service in Burma, he was in December 1895 appointed Lieutenant Governor of Bengal, where he served for three years. His short term in office was dominated by natural disasters, the province suffered plague, famine, earthquake and cyclone in those years. As an administrator he was a stern upholder of the rights of the province against what he perceived to be the financial encroachments of the British Indian government, and voiced this in the council, receiving opposition from the financial member of the council Sir James Westland. He cooperated with the Assam Administration in the conduct of the Lushai expedition in 1895–96.
In local administration, he initiated a survey and settlement in Orissa, took a keen interest in education and in the improvement of the Calcutta docks. He was probably mostly remembered for his work with the Calcutta Corporation to reform the Calcutta Municipal Act after a sanitary survey of the city found very unsatisfying conditions. His aloof ways in dealings with the city and corporation led to enmity with the Indian population and press.
His absence and negligence during his time in office made him unpopular amongst locals, but did not results in his removal from office.{{citation needed|date=November 2019}}
Poor health led him to take six months leave from May 1897. He was back in Bengal by the end of the year, but was forced to retire permanently in March 1898 due to poor health. He returned to the United Kingdom and led a quite life, his only significant public office was as Chairman of the India Development Company.
He died at Radnor, Holmbury St Mary, Surrey, on 10 November 1902.{{Cite newspaper The Times |title=Deaths |date=12 November 1902 |page=1 |issue=36923}}
Family
Mackenzie was twice married. His first wife from 1863 was Georgina Louisa Huntly Bremner (born 1838 India,FIBIS East India Register Birth Announcements, April 2009. and died 1892 Birmingham), youngest daughter of Colonel Bremner; and after her death he remarried as second wife in 1893 Mabel Elizabeth Elliot, youngest daughter of Ralph Elliot (1839–1874) and a granddaughter of Sir George Elliot, 1st Baronet. Lady Mackenzie survived him, and married another civil servant, the Hon. Noel Farrer, son of the 1st Baron Farrer.‘FARRER, Hon. Noel (Maitland)’, Who Was Who, A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 1920–2007; online edn, Oxford University Press, December 2007 [http://www.ukwhoswho.com/view/article/oupww/whowaswho/U209279, accessed 15 December 2013] With his second wife, he had two children:Debrett′s Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage, 1903
- Margaret Helen Mackenzie (b1896)
- Alastair Ian Mackenzie (b1897)
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- [http://www.worldstatesmen.org/Myanmar.htm Myanmar (Burma)] at www.worldstatesmen.org
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{{succession box|title=Chief Commissioner of the Central Provinces|years=1887–1889|before= Dennis Fitzpatrick|after= Sir Antony Patrick MacDonnell}}
{{succession box|title=Chief Commissioner of British Crown Colony of Burma|years=1890–1895|before=Sir Charles Haukes Todd|after=Frederick William Richard Fryer}}
{{succession box|title=Lieutenant-governor of Bengal|years=1895–1898|before= Sir Antony Patrick MacDonnell|after= Sir Charles Cecil Stevens}}
{{s-end}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mackenzie, Alexander}}
Category:Administrators in British Burma
Category:Indian Civil Service (British India) officers
Category:People from Birmingham, West Midlands
Category:Lieutenant-governors of Bengal
Category:Knights Commander of the Order of the Star of India