The following appeared in the Spring '97 issue of The Mackay Banner

LORD MACKAY IS HONORED DINNER GUEST

 

More than likely many will tell what a grand time they had touring Orkney and

Strathnaver, or of the Ceilidh at Tongue Hotel and the magnificent clan dinner

in Edinburgh, and their pride in having dined with several of Scotland's noted

sons: the 14TH Lord Reay, Chief of Mackay, and Lord Mackay of Clashfern, our

guest of honor, who is also known as the Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain.

Lord John Mackay of

Clashfern at the Clan

Mackay banquet in

Edinburgh, August,1996.

 

Lord Mackay was born in Edinburgh in 1927. His father, a railwayman, was a keen

supporter of the Free Presbyterian Church and taught his children the strict

doctrine of the Bible and the importance of observing the Sabbath. To some,

Lord Mackay's early life may have seemed a bit rigid. Not to Mackay! He loved

the church. His devotion to his faith and the good that it has given him was

evidenced by Mackay's 30 years service as a church elder, a duty that would

have continued if he had not been suspended for attending the funerals of two

Roman Catholic senior judges in 1986 and 1988. For this action Lord Mackay was

not allowed to take communion until he repented. When his punishment was reviewed

by the Synod in 1989 the vote went against Mackay, 33 to 27. He later left the

Free Presbyterian Church but remains a dedicated Christian.

 

Lord Mackay spoke of his father as a "tremendous gentleman," who had the soul

of courtesy and gentleness about him. Mackay once remarked that his father was

very interested in theology, the church, and that he had a very retentive

memory for those matters, a character not unlike Lord Mackay.

 

After graduating from St. Andrew's University, Mackay became a mathematician

and later turned to law. He was twenty eight when he qualified as a lawyer.

After two years of private practice he went to the Bar in 1955. He had no

ambitions other than to make a good living. For a while he handled both civil

and criminal cases, and later built up his workload by using his mathematics

experience to handle his clients' tax difficulties.

 

In 1976 Mackay was appointed Dean of the Faculty of Advocates. Three years later

he was appointed to the position of Lord Advocate of Scotland and quickly

established himself as reformer. He was made Lord Chancellor of Scotland by

Margaret Thatcher in 1987.

 

Lord Mackay's more outspoken reforms included adding more women and minorities

on the bench, allowing judges to speak with the media, and introducing the

Children's Act and the Court and Legal Services Act which reformed the law

profession's worst practices. He also sponsored the Family Homes and Domestic

Violence Bill and the dramatic No-Fault Divorce Bill.

 

It is often said that Lord Mackay is a maverick, a man amongst us but apart

from us. Lord Mackay accepts this loneliness. He is in Scotland's second most

powerful position and must take the ultimate responsibility of guiding his

country's judicial branch.

 

Mackay never works or travels far on Sunday. His idea of Sunday observance is

not to say one must do this or that, but to give one a complete break and a day

to think of the spirit.. to contemplate why we are here and what is our purpose.

Lord Mackay enjoys this time. He uses it to reflect on the wider picture of life.

Doing so, he says, "serves as a good antidote to getting too high an opinion of yourself."