MACKENZIE, James Noble, Rev (1865-1956)
Assembly memorial minute 1956
Born in the Isle of Ewe, Ross-shire, Scotland, on 8th January, 1865.
Educated at the University of Glasgow.
Ordained at Melbourne in 1894 and was an ordained minister for 62 years.
Foreign Mission Service: Santo, New Hebrides, from 1894 to 1909.
Korea, from 1910 to 1939.
Moderator of Victorian State Assembly from 1940 to
1941.
Died on Monday, 2nd July, 1956, at the age of 91.
After training at the University of Glasgow, Mr. Mackenzie was one who responded to appeal by the late Dr. J.G. Paton for service in the New Hebrides. He came to Australia, was ordained in Melbourne and inducted as a missionary. He was then appointed to Nogugu in North West Santo, at that time the northern outpost of our charge in the New Hebrides. The natives of the entire island were then savage and cannibalistic. Mr. Mackenzie was accompanied to the New Hebrides in 1894 by his young wife, a trained nurse who, until her death from blackwater fever in 1909, was his devoted collaborator for the Islanders. His brother, Dr. Ewen Mackenzie, went to Hog Harbour a few years later.
After fifteen years in the New Hebrides, repeated attacks of blackwater fever compelled his retirement from the islands. Upon comong back to Victoria he was declared on medical grounds to be unable to return to the foreign mission field. However, he decided otherwise and volunteered for service in Korea where, after a year on language study, he took part in the work of an itinerant missionary in Pusan districts.
In 1912 Mr. Mackenzie married Miss Mary Kelly, who had gone to Korea as a Presbyterian Women’s Missionary Union worker. At this time he was appointed to the Pusan Leper Hospital and for 27 years laboured as its superintendent. For many years, he and Mrs. Mackenzie had the care of more than 600 lepers. For this fine service the Emperor of Japan conferred upon him the Imperial Decoration of the Blue Ribbon Medal.
Retiring in 1939, Mr. Mackenzie became a member of the Deepdene Session and also of the Presbytery of Melbourne North. At the beginning of his retirement, the Assembly called him to the chair of Moderator in recognition of a long and distinguished life of service. He continued in his great enthusiasm for missions and served on home committees in administrative capacities, as he had done while out on the field. As much as health permitted, he continued in the supply of pulpits.
Mr. Mackenzie was a servant of great vitality, given to the life and work of the Church of his Lord. He had the mind of a statesman and utilised it in the sense of a trust from God. His congenial manner and encouraging smile gained him many friends. Two of his daughters have received the torch of missionary service from his hands - Dr. Helen and Sister Catherine Mackenzie who are both in Korea.
To Mrs. Mackenzie and her four daughters, the Assembly tender sincere sympathy.
Gender
- Male