1931: Sir (William) Leslie Mackenzie

Last updated May 2024

Sir Leslie Mackenzie was a medical administrator who didn't have an obvious link with Geography at first glance.

His work did however help develop the sub-field of medical geography.

We now have plenty of interest in the geography of disease, and the use of GIS, with John Snow's cholera map, to the present day use of mapping and statistics (by the late Hans Rosling and others) to stem the spread of the Ebola virus.

He was born in Scotland, and educated in Aberdeen, before teaching at a girls' school. He graduated in Classics and Philosophy from Aberdeen University.

He became interested in medicine, trained in medicine and then became the Medical Officer the Wigtown and Kirkcudbright area. He had expertise in the water supply and link to health and tackled a local Smallpox outbreak. He dealt with tuberculosis infections, and became a Medical Officer on the Board of Health for Scotland before retiring in 1928.

Mackenzie was considered a radical by his peers in terms of promoting a movement of personal fitness rather than trying to control the environment. His colleagues regarded him “with awe, as a radical philosopher who saw medicine not as a palliative nor a means of private gain, but as an instrument of social development”.

(Via Wikipedia entry under CC license)

He was also a proponent of council housing. This was certainly an important area, and one that should be returned to reduce several issues we have currently.

Mackenzie served on a number of other commissions during his long and productive career. One of the most notable was the royal commission on housing between 1913 and 1917. 

He actively drafted topics to be addressed and even took an interest in drafting the 1919 Housing Bill itself. His champion cause was to introduce state-subsidised council housing. He was considered by his peers to have played an effective role in the inclusion of this issue.

Another important contribution was to help introduce school meals.

He demonstrated the poor condition of inner city children and presented it to the royal commission after he surveyed 600 schoolchildren. His report led to the introduction of a school meals service and medical inspection after much debate in Parliament. Something else we have to thank him for.

He also travelled to Kentucky - as described here:

https://www.wihb.scot.nhs.uk/looking%20back/Stories/LeslieMackenzie.htm

He was knighted before taking up the GA Presidency.

The 1930 Annual Report mentions him.

“ANNUAL REPORT, 1930.” Geography, vol. 16, no. 1, 1931, pp. 54–56. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/40557801. Accessed 6 May 2024.

His Presidential Address was unsurprisingly on the theme of medical geography. See later for some more details on the content:



In it, he outlined some of the ideas that he had developed during his career related to the control of disease, introducing ideas which are still taught at 'A' level in particular.
He was apparently known for his "pawky humour".

Mackenzie died in 1935, just a few years after the end of his Presidency. His wife continued similar work after his death.

His death was announced in Nature in 1935

https://www.nature.com/articles/135364a0.pdf

References
Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Mackenzie_(doctor)

I edited this page to add the GA Presidency role to it.

Mackenzie, Leslie. “A HEALTH ADMINISTRATOR'S ATTITUDE TO GEOGRAPHY.” Geography, vol. 17, no. 1, 1932, pp. 1–10. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40558124 - Presidential Address.
Image source: Wikimedia - CC licensed

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5309662/ - obituary
https://archive.org/details/healthschoolchi00mackgoog/page/n4

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5309662/pdf/edinbmedj75109-0045.pdf

If anyone has any further information on this GA President's role, please get in touch. This is quite a brief entry, and I'd like to add more if possible.

Updated August 2021

It seems that Mackenzie had a lot of useful thoughts on public health that were ahead of their time. He hated spitting as he felt it helped spread TB. He also tried to reduce overcrowding for health benefits.

😍 this 1900 Lecture on the "Working Man's Home" by W Leslie Mackenzie. He demonstrates a disinfectant sprayer to "turn dust into mud", having just outlined a plan for state-run creches & a hot take on the regulation of overcrowding. Next: food storage #HealthAndHousing @HSA_UK pic.twitter.com/tj35Rl3b4G

— Craig Gurney (@CraigTweeted) April 8, 2021

Updated August 2023

A report on Leslie Mackenzie's GA Conference, including details of his address in 1932: It's interesting to see that some of the lectures were attended by over four hundred people!

Twenty six firms also took part in the publishers' exhibition.

https://www.nature.com/articles/129138a0.pdf 

Updated April 2024

“ANNUAL REPORT, 1930.” Geography, vol. 16, no. 1, 1931, pp. 54–56. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/40557801. Accessed 6 May 2024. 

References to several other Presidents here too:

This also pointed out the change in location to Manchester:

" in the Municipal High School of Commerce, Princess Street, Manchester, in premises generously allocated to our use by the Education Committee of that City. The change brought with it the possibility of converting our Library into a Reference Library, and the equipment of that Library with a collection of atlases has been facilitated by a generous gift made to the Association by the Rt. Hon. the late Lady Courtney of Penwith. 

The collection of Russian soil profiles mentioned above has been placed on exhibition with explanatory notes and maps in the Association's Library, and projects are in hand for a large expansion of collections."