William James Millar Mackenzie was born on 8 April 1909 , only son of L M Mackenzie, WS, Edinburgh. He was educated at Edinburgh Academy, Balliol College, Oxford, England and the University of Edinburgh. He was a distinguished student at Oxford, gaining 1st Classes in Classical Moderations and Litterae Humanitores; winning the Craven Scholarship ( 1928 ) and the Ireland Scholarship ( 1929 ); and sharing the Jenkyns Exhibition in Classics ( 1931 ). He graduated BA in 1931 , going on to take a Law Degree at the University of Edinburgh, graduating LLB with Distinction in 1933 . He was a Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford from 1933-1948 , Tutor in Classics, 1933 , and Tutor in Politics, 1936 . He served with the Air Ministry in London and Washington from 1939-1944 , and as Official War Historian with the Special Operations Executive from 1945-1948 . He was Lecturer in Politics at Oxford from 1948-1949 . From 1949-1965 he was Professor of Government at the University of Manchester, England, where he was awarded the Degree of MA (ex-officio). He was appointed to the newly established Chair of Government at the University of Glasgow in 1966 . He held that position until 1970 when he was appointed the Edward Caird Professor of Politics, the post which he held until his retirement in 1974 . He was active in public affairs, and was particularly involved in the solution of constitutional and administrative problems of developing countries. This included serving as Special Commissioner for Constitutional Development in Tanganyika, 1952 ; Constitutional Adviser to the Government of Kenya, 1959 ; and Vice-Chairman of a Departmental Committee on Training in Public Administration in Overseas Countries from 1962 . He was also actively involved in local government, serving on the Royal Commission on Local Government in Greater London in 1957 , and on a Departmental Committee on Management in Local Government in 1964 . He was a member of the Lawrence Committee on MP's Pay from 1963-1964 . He also served as a co-opted member of the Education Committee of the City of Manchester. He was author and co-author of authoritative works on government and politics, including British Government since 1918 Central Administration in Great Britain(1957) , Free Elections(1958), Five Elections in Africa(1959) , Politics and Social Science(1967) . His public service was acknowledged in the award of the CBE in 1963 and in the conferring of an honorary degree of LLD by the University of Dundee in 1968 , and an honorary DLitt in 1970 from the University of Lancaster. In 1943 he married Pamela Muriel Malyon and they had one son and four daughters. He died on 22 August 1996 .
From the guide to the William James Millar Mackenzie, 1909-1996; political scientist; Professor of Government, 1966-1970 and Professor of Politics, 1970-1974, University of Glasgow, Scotland, 1930-1972, (Glasgow University Archive Services)
