Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Mackenzie, George Sutherland
MACKENZIE, Sir GEORGE SUTHERLAND (1844–1910), explorer and administrator, born at Bolarum, India, on 5 May 1844, was third son of Sir William Mackenzie, K.C.B., M.D., inspector-general of Madras medical service, by his wife Margaret, daughter of Edmund Prendergast, of Ardfinan Castle, co. Tipperary. Educated at Clapham under Dr. Charles Pritchard [q. v.], he went into commercial life, joining the firm of Gray, Dawes & Co., East India merchants, in London, and agents for the British India Steam Navigation Co., and, ultimately becoming a partner in the firm, was closely connected with the British India Steam Navigation Co., of which he was made a director. In 1866, at twenty-two years of age, he went to the Persian Gulf as the representative of his firm, and after some time at Bushire was sent into the interior, to establish agencies at Shiraz and Ispahan. With a view to meeting the need of improved communication between the coast of the Persian Gulf and the interior, in 1875 he travelled from Ispahan through the Bakhtiari country by way of Shuster to the head of the Gulf. Though unarmed and with three attendants only, he travelled in safety, and by his courage and tact made friends with the chiefs of the tribes. In 1878 he made the reverse journey, starting from Mahommerah, steaming up the Karun river, and then proceeding by way of Shuster. He thus tried to open up a trade route by the Karun river, a scheme which was more successfully negotiated with the Persian government at a later date by Sir Henry Drummond Wolff [q. v. Suppl. II]. At his death Mackenzie was 'the doyen of Persian explorers' (Geographical Journal, July-Dec. 1910, p. 738).
After the Anglo-German agreement of 1886, the British East African Association, of which Mackenzie was a member, obtained from the Sultan of Zanzibar in May 1887 a concession of the coastline of East Africa between the Umba River and Kipini near the mouth of the Tana. A founders' agreement dated 18 April 1888, in which Mackenzie figures as a contributor and a director, was followed by a royal charter which, on 3 Sept. 1888, incorporated Mackenzie and the other members of the association under the name of the Imperial British East African Co. Mackenzie gave the name of Ibea to the company's territories. Ii the autumn of 1888 he arrived at Zanzibar to take over, as managing director, the coast leased to the company, and then went on to Mombasa. The time was critical. The coast tribes in the German sphere were in revolt against the German East Africa Co. A joint blockade of the whole East African coast by Great Britain and Germany was found necessary; and in the British sphere the Arabs were on the eve of an armed rising owing to runaway slaves being harboured at the mission stations. Mackenzie averted this last imminent danger, and conciliated the Arab slave-owners by paying them compensation for the fugitive slaves at the mission stations at the rate of $25 a head, the gross sum amounting to 3500l. Sir Charles Euan-Smith [q. v. Suppl. II], British consul-general at Zanzibar, described this act as one of 'unparalleled generosity and philanthropy,' and bore the strongest testimony to Mackenzie's 'tact and good judgment.' His experience with a cognate people in Persia stood him in good stead (Keltie, Partition of Africa, p. 329). The admiral on the station, Fremantle, commented on his 'tact, care and discretion,' and reported that 'he has Hterally won golden opinions, the Arabs spontaneously giving him a feast' (Parl Pap. Africa, No. 1 (1889), August 1889, pp. 13, 17, 21, 36, &c.).
Mackenzie paid a visit to England in 1889, but returned to Mombasa again in December of that year accompanied by Captain (now Sir Frederick) Lugard, who wrote of 'the personal affection which Mackenzie inspired in all who served under him.' By way of developing East Africa he introduced Persian agriculturists, improved Mombasa town and harbour, sent caravans into the interior as far as Uganda, and with a well-selected staff organised the territory (C.O. List for 1890). He was also of much assistance to the Italians in negotiating treaties for them with the Somali tribe, and received the grand cross of the crown of Italy. He ceased to be administrator in May 1890, when he returned to England, and in 1895 the company surrendered their charter to the government. He was made C.B. in 1897 and K.C.M.G. in 1902. He also held the grand cross of the brilliant star of Zanzibar. He was a member of the council of the Royal Geographical Society 1893–1909 and vice-president 1901-5. He died suddenly in London on 1 Nov. 1910, and was buried at Brookwood cemetery. He married (1) in 1883 Elma (d. 1904), daughter of Major William Cairns Armstrong, 16th East Yorkshire regiment; (2) in 1905 May Matilda, widow of Archibald Bovill, and daughter of Hugh Darby Owen. He left no family. A portrait is in the possession of his sister, Mrs. Mackinnon, 10 Hyde Park Gardens; a photograph of this picture is at the Royal Colonial Institute, of which he was a prominent member.
[Authorities cited : The Times, 3 Nov. 1910; Geographical Journal, July-December 1910; Scott Keltie's Partition of Africa, 1893; P. L. McDermott, British East Africa or Ibea, 1893; Lugard's Rise of an East African Empire, 1893; Colonial Office List, 1890; Blue Book, 1889.]