Clutha Mackenzie

Sir Clutha Nantes Mackenzie (11 February 1895 – 30 March 1966) was a New Zealand politician and worker for the blind. He was briefly a Reform Party Member of Parliament.

Clutha Mackenzie in 1931

Biography
New Zealand Parliament
Years Term Electorate Party
1921–1922 20th Auckland East Reform

Mackenzie was born in Balclutha in 1895. He was the youngest child of Sir Thomas Mackenzie,[1] who was High Commissioner in London and was previously a Liberal politician (and Prime Minister in 1912). Mackenzie Jr. enlisted in the Army in World War I.[2] He was blinded at Chunuk Bair during the Gallipoli campaign and was sent to the No. 2 New Zealand General Hospital at Walton-on-Thames to convalesce.[3] At the hospital he was one of the patients of his sister Mary, who was a member of the Voluntary Aid Detachment here.[4] After recovering he was sent to the live with other blind soldiers in a house in Portland before attending St Dunstan's, the Institute for the Blind Soldiers and Sailors.[4] At the institute he learnt Braille as well as how to type.

He was active in organisations for the blind; he was attached to the UN and was Chairman of the World Braille Council. He was appointed a Knight Bachelor in the 1935 New Year Honours.[5] Later that year he was awarded the King George V Silver Jubilee Medal.[6]

Mackenzie won the Auckland East electorate in a 1921 by-election[7] after the resignation of Arthur Myers,[8] but was defeated in the next election in 1922 by John A. Lee.[9]

Mackenzie died in Auckland in 1966,[1] and his ashes were buried in the Dunedin Northern Cemetery.[10]

Notes
  1. Hansen, Penelope. "Mackenzie, Clutha Nantes". Dictionary of New Zealand Biography. Ministry for Culture and Heritage. Retrieved 20 December 2014.
  2. Brooking, Tom. "Mackenzie, Thomas Noble 1853–1930". Dictionary of New Zealand Biography. Ministry for Culture and Heritage. Retrieved 30 December 2011.
  3. Rogers, Anna (2018). With Them Through Hell: New Zealand Medical Services in the First World War. Auckland: Massey University Press. p. 199. ISBN 978-0-9951001-9-0.
  4. Tolerton, Jane (2017). Make Her Praises Heard Afar : New Zealand women overseas in World War One (Paperback). Wellington: Booklovers Books. pp. viii, 172–173. ISBN 978-0-473-39965-8.
  5. "No. 34119". The London Gazette (Supplement). 1 January 1935. p. 2.
  6. "Official jubilee medals". The Evening Post. 6 May 1935. p. 4. Retrieved 3 August 2013.
  7. Scholefield 1950, p. 123.
  8. Scholefield 1950, p. 128.
  9. Scholefield 1950, p. 120.
  10. "Cemeteries search". Dunedin City Council. Archived from the original on 23 September 2015. Retrieved 20 December 2014.

References
  • Obituary in Evening Post, 31 March 1966 page 26.
  • Scholefield, Guy (1950) [First ed. published 1913]. New Zealand Parliamentary Record, 1840–1949 (3rd ed.). Wellington: Govt. Printer.

Further reading
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