MACKAY, ALEXANDER HENRY (1877-1948)

MACKAY, ALEXANDER HENRY, dry-goods merchant and high sheriff, 1943-48; mayor of Newcastle, 1929-31; b. Southend-on-Sea, England, 13 Feb 1877, s/o Peter Mackay and Jean Brown; m. Hannah W. Mitchell, d/o George Mitchell and Martha Jane Miller, of Newcastle; d. there, 8 Feb 1948.

The son of a shipbuilder on the Thames River in England, Alexander H. Mackay came to Newcastle at age nineteen as a clerk in the dry-goods store of his uncle James Brown. When his uncle died in 1903, he took over the business, which he subsequently conducted in his own name for many years. At age sixty-six he was appointed high sheriff of the county, as successor to William A. Skidd.

Mackay was exceptionally active in civic and political affairs. He served several terms as a Newcastle town councillor and was mayor for two years. He was a longtime school trustee. He was the Liberal party treasurer for the county until succeeded by L. Warren Flett in 1935. A member of the Masonic fraternity, he was worshipful master of Northumberland Lodge in 1924. He was an adherent of the Baptist church. His survivors in 1948 were his wife, Hannah W. Mitchell, four sons, and a daughter.