John Keiller MacKay

For other people named John MacKay, see John MacKay (disambiguation).
Lieutenant-Colonel The Honourable
John Keiller MacKay
OC DSO KStJ VD QC
19th Lieutenant Governor of Ontario
In office
December 30, 1957 – May 1, 1963
Monarch Elizabeth II
Governor General Vincent Massey
Georges Vanier
Premier Leslie Frost
John Robarts
Preceded by Louis Orville Breithaupt
Succeeded by William Earl Rowe
Personal details
Born (1888-07-11)July 11, 1888
Plainfield, Nova Scotia, Canada
Died June 12, 1970(1970-06-12) (aged 81)
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Nationality Canadian

Military career

Allegiance Canada
Rank Lieutenant-Colonel
Commands held 6th Brigade, Canadian Field Artillery
Battles/wars Battle of the Somme
Battle of Vimy Ridge

Lieutenant-Colonel John Keiller MacKay, OC, DSO, KStJ, VD, QC (July 11, 1888 – June 12, 1970) was a Canadian soldier, lawyer and jurist. MacKay served as the 19th Lieutenant Governor of Ontario from 1957 to 1963.

Early life and education

John Keiller MacKay was born in 1888 in the village of Plainfield, Nova Scotia in Pictou County, Nova Scotia, the son of John Duncan and Bessie (Murray) MacKay. He was educated at the Pictou Academy, the Royal Military College (1909), Saint Francis Xavier University (BA 1912) and Dalhousie University (LL.B. 1922).

Career

During World War I, he served in, and later commanded, 6th Brigade, Canadian Field Artillery (Non-Permanent Active Militia in the Canadian Army). He achieved the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel and was mentioned in dispatches three times and wounded twice. MacKay won the Distinguished Service Order in 1916 at the Battle of the Somme and in 1918 was seriously wounded at Arras. He left the military after the war but was involved in the formation of the Royal Canadian Legion in 1925 and was its first National Vice-Chairman. He was a freemason and was initiated in 1925 to Ionic Lodge, #25 G.R.C.

He was called to the Nova Scotia bar in 1922 and the Ontario bar in 1923. He was a senior partner of a law firm, "MacKay, Matheson & Martin" in Toronto, and became a specialist in criminal law. He was appointed a King's Counsel in 1933. He was appointed to the Supreme Court of Ontario in 1935 and to the Ontario Court of Appeal in 1950.

MacKay served as the Lieutenant Governor of Ontario from 1957 to 1963, and he opened the Lieutenant Governor's New Year's Levee to the general public for the first time.

In 1967, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada.[1] He was also a Knight of Grace of the Venerable Order of St. John of Jerusalem and was responsible for bringing the Military and Hospitaler Order of St. Lazarus of Jerusalem to Canada.

He was married to Katherine 'Kay' Jean MacLeod and had three sons. He died in Toronto in 1970 and is buried in Mount Pleasant Cemetery, Toronto (section Q-154).

The gravestone of MacKay (section Q-154) in Mount Pleasant Cemetery

Legacy

Quotes

"Many new things are useful, but the experience of the ages must not be repudiated. Tradition has its failures but is it not so that tradition is the sum of those enduring values, which have been kept alive through all mutations and help to give us continual stability and direction to life?"

“The state is made for the individual, not the individual for the state.”

"Too much authority is like alcohol in its effects on the brain. There is no excuse for infringing on the rights of the individual on the pretext that you are defending the freedom of the state."[3]

References

  1. ↑ Order of Canada
  2. ↑ J. Keiller MacKay Memorial Trophy
  3. ↑ Globe and Mail, June 13, 1970. p10.

Keiller Mackay

Books

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