George Mackie, Baron Mackie of Benshie

Who is George Mackie, Baron Mackie of Benshie?

George Yull Mackie, Baron Mackie of Benshie CBE DSO DFC is a former Scottish Liberal Party politician. 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 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. He is the oldest living person to have served as a Liberal Member of Parliament in the United Kingdom.