George Mackie, Baron Mackie of Benshie
George Yull Mackie, Baron Mackie of Benshie CBE DSO DFC was a Scottish Liberal Party politician.
After World War II in which he served as a decorated airman with RAF Bomber Command, Mackie took over a farm at Benshie, Angus, and subsequently set up a cattle ranch at Braeroy, Inverness-shire, near Spean Bridge. Having first contested South Angus in 1959, he was elected Member of Parliament for Caithness and Sutherland in 1964. In the Commons he served as Scottish Liberal whip. He lost his seat in 1966, when he was defeated by Labour candidate Robert Maclennan. Maclennan eventually became a senior Social Democrat Party/Liberal Democrat politician in the 1980s. 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 in 1971, he was given a life peerage, as Baron Mackie of Benshie, of Kirriemuir in the County of Angus on 10 May 1974. 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 term as Rector of the University of Dundee.
His older brothers were Sir Maitland Mackie and John Mackie, Baron John-Mackie.
Until his death, Mackie was the oldest living person to have served as a Liberal Member of Parliament in the United Kingdom. His death was announced on 17 February 2015. He was 95 years old.
Lord Mackie's papers are held by Archive Services at the University of Dundee.
