Mackenzie, Melville Douglas

Identity Statement

Reference code(s)	: GB 0102 MS 380483
Held at	: School of Oriental and African Studies   Click here to find out how to view this collection at http://www.soas.ac.uk/Archives/home.html ›
Full title	: Mackenzie, Melville Douglas
Date(s)	: Created 1930-1935
Level of description	: Collection (fonds)
Extent	: 3 boxes
Name of creator(s)	: Mackenzie | Melville Douglas | 1889-1972 | health administrator

Context

Administrative/Biographical history:

Melville Douglas Mackenzie was born on 29 June 1889, son of Frederick Lumsden Mackenzie. He was educated at Epsom College and then at the University of London where he obtained a degree in Medicine in 1911. He obtained his Doctorate in 1920 and Diplomas in Tropical Medicine and Hygiene and Tropical Hygiene in the same year, and in 1921 an additional Diploma in Public Health. He married Caroline Faith Mackay in 1934.

During the First World War, he served as a Captain in the Royal Army Medical Corps (1917-1919). He was the Senior Medical Officer to the Russian Famine Relief Administration (1921-1923). In 1926 he joined the Ministry of Health and in 1928 he was invited to join the Health Organisation of the League of Nations. From 1931-1932 he went as the Special Commissioner to the Council of the League of Nations, to pacify and disarm native tribes - the Kru (Kroo) peoples - and fix new boundaries in Liberia. He was also a member of the Advisory Mission to the Liberian General Health Survey. In 1936 he became the Acting Director of the League of Nations Epidemiological Bureau, Singapore and later became Chairman of the European Health Committee of United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Organization (UNRRA). Later in 1946 he was United Kingdom Delegate, with Plenipotentiary Powers, to the World Health Conference in New York. He died on 1 December 1972.

Content

Scope and content/abstract:

Copies of the papers and photographs, 1930-1935 and undated, of Dr Melville Douglas Mackenzie, relating to his time as Special Commissioner, League of Nations Mission to the Kru (Kroo) peoples of Liberia (1931-1932).

Access & Use

Language/scripts of material:
Mainly English, some French

System of arrangement:

Material has been arranged in chronological order.

Conditions governing access:

Unrestricted.

Conditions governing reproduction:

No publication without written permission. Apply to archivist in the first instance.

Finding aids:

Unpublished handlist.

Archival Information

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition:

Donated in 1991.

Allied Materials

Related material:

Copies of the Mackenzie papers relating to his work with the Russian Famine Relief Administration are held at Friends House Library, Euston Road, London NW1. Correspondence with Lord Lugard is held at Oxford University, Rhodes House Library (Ref: MSS Lugard).

National Register of Archives: Click here to view NRA record

Publication note:

Description Notes

Archivist's note:

Rules or conventions:

Date(s) of descriptions:
15 May 2000