Clutha Mackenzie


Sir Clutha Nantes Mackenzie was a New Zealand politician and worker for the blind. He was briefly a Reform Party Member of Parliament.

Biography

A son of Sir Thomas Mackenzie, who was High Commissioner in London and was previously a Liberal politician, he enlisted in the Army in World War I. He was blinded at Chunak Bair during the Gallipoli campaign and was sent to the No. 2 New Zealand General Hospital at Walton-on-Thames to convalesce.
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. Later that year he was awarded the King George V Silver Jubilee Medal.
Mackenzie won the Auckland East electorate in a 1921 by-election after the resignation of Arthur Myers, but was defeated in the next election in 1922 by John A. Lee.
Mackenzie died in Auckland in 1966, and his ashes were buried in the Dunedin Northern Cemetery.