George Mackie, Baron Mackie of Benshie

George Yull Mackie, Baron Mackie of Benshie (10 July 1919 – 17 February 2015) was a British Liberal and Liberal Democrat politician.

Early life Mackie was born in Tarves, Aberdeenshire, the son of Dr Maitland Mackie and his wife Mary (née Yull). He was educated at Aberdeen Grammar School and Aberdeen University. His older brothers were Sir Maitland Mackie and John Mackie, Baron John-Mackie, a future Labour MP.

In 1940 Mackie was commissioned in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve. He served with RAF Bomber Command and was awarded the Distinguished Service Order and Distinguished Flying Cross. After the Second World War, he took over a farm at Benshie, Angus, and subsequently set up a cattle ranch at Braeroy, Inverness-shire, near Spean Bridge. 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 three-year term as Rector of the University of Dundee.

Mackie's papers are held by Archive Services at the University of Dundee.

Personal life Mackie married firstly, in 1944, Lindsay, daughter of lawyer Alexander Sharp, of Aberdeen. They had three daughters; the eldest of whom, Lindsay, married the journalist Alan Rusbridger and they have two daughters, including the author and journalist Bella Mackie. Mackie married secondly, in 1988, Jacqueline, daughter of Colonel Marcel Rauch, of the French Air Force.