William James Millar Mackenzie was born in 1909 and was educated first at Edinburgh Academy and then at Balliol College, University of Oxford, where he graduated MA. He was the Ireland Scholar in 1929 and became a graduate of Law from the University of Edinburgh. He was a Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford, from 1933-1948 . During the Second World War ( 1939-1944 ), he was a Temporary Civil Servant in the Air Ministry. He was the Official War Historian for the SOE from 1945-1948 and was Faculty Fellow at Nuffield College in 1948 . That year he was also Lecturer in Politics at the University of Oxford. He was Special Commissioner for Constitutional Development in Tanganyika in 1952. From 1949-1966 he held the post of Professor of Government at Manchester University as he did from 1966-1974 . During his career he was a member of the following committees and boards: Manchester City Education Committee from 1953-1964 ; British Wool Marketing Board, 1954-1966 ; Constitutional Adviser, Kenya, 1959 ; Vice-Chairman, Bridges Committee on Training in Public Administration for Overseas Countries, 1962 ; Maud Committee on Management in Local Government, 1964-1966 ; North-West Regional Economic Planning Council, 1965-1966 and Children's Panel Advisory Committee, Glasgow City, 1973-1975 . He was created an Honorary Doctor of Literature from the University of Warwick in 1972 . His publications include: (in part) British Government since 1918, 1950 ; (jtly) Five Elections in Africa, (1959); Politics and Social Science (1967); and Explorations in Government, (1975).
From the guide to the Papers of William James Millar Mackenzie, b.1909, Professor of Politics, University of Glasgow, Scotland, 1948, (Glasgow University Library, Special Collections Department)
