Sir Alexander Mackenzie, KCSI acted as one of the Lieutenant Governors of Bengal Presidency in British India from the year 1895 to 1897. He was also a well known colonial administrator under the rule of the British East India Company. Mackenzie was appointed as Chief Commissioner of the British Crown Colony of Burma. He held office from December 1890 to April 1895. He was born in the year 1842 in the town of Dumfries, Scotland to the parents Reverend John R. Mackenzie and Alexanderina Mackenzie. He later shifted to Birmingham along with his parents. He studied at King Edward`s School and later successfully completed his graduation in BA from Trinity College in Cambridge.
Career of Alexander Mackenzie
Alexander Mackenzie became a member of British Indian Civil Service after he passed the entrance examination. The British Indian Civil Service (ICS) was the civil service of the Government of India during the era of the rule of British Empire in India. The members of the civil service were appointed under Section XXXII of the Government of India Act, 1858 of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. After the year 1886, the Indian Civil Service was officially known as Imperial Civil Service. In the year 1862, Mackenzie went to Calcutta (now Kolkata) in Bengal Presidency. Sir Alexander Mackenzie was appointed as the Home Secretary to the Government of British India in 1882. He held several other positions of civil service appointments of British administration, such as Chief Commissioner of the Central Provinces in 1887; Chief Commissioner of Burma in 1890 and Member of the Supreme Council of Burma in 1895.
Alexander Mackenzie was appointed as the Lieutenant Governor of Bengal Presidency in the year 1895. The Bengal Presidency originally comprised east and west Bengal and was a colonial region of the British Empire in India. The region included the territories of undivided Bengal like West Bengal, Tripura, Orissa, Meghalaya, Bihar, Assam and modern Bangladesh. Mackenzie was preceded by Sir Antony Patrick MacDonnell, 1st Baron MacDonnell GCSI, KCVO, PC in the post of the Lieutenant Governor of Bengal. Sir Alexander Mackenzie, KCSI served in office till the year 1897 and was succeeded by Sir Charles Cecil Stevens.
Later Life of Alexander Mackenzie
Mackenzie was appointed as a Knight Commander of The Most Exalted Order of the Star of India (KCSI) in 1891. He retired in the year 1898 and went back to Britain. Later he served as the Chairman of the India Development Company.
Personal Life of Alexander Mackenzie
Alexander Mackenzie was married twice. He was married first to Georgina Louisa Huntly Bremner in 1863. But after her death in the year 1892, Mackenzie was married for a second time to Mabel E. Elliot in 1893. He died on 10 November 1902 at the age of 60 years in London.
