James Noble MACKENZIE

MACKENZIE, JAMES NOBLE (b. Isle of Ewe, Ross-shire Scotland, 8 Jan 1865; d. Balwyn, Vic, 2 July 1956). Missionary to the New Hebrides (now Vanuatu) and Korea.

Sixth of a family of seven of whom three sons served the New Hebrides Mission, James Mackenzie decided to become a minister after hearing D L Moody. Influenced by the Cambridge Seven he planned to serve in China. While at Glasgow University and Free Church Theological Hall he became a Student Volunteer for Mission and responded to John G Paton's call for workers for the New Hebrides. On 3 July 1894 he married Margaret Blair Kelly of Dailly, Ayrshire, a trained nurse.

Ordained Melbourne 17 Dec 1894, he was stationed at Nogugu, N W Santo, in the New Hebrides from 24 April 1895. Two brief missionary settlements had prepared the way. He baptised the first twelve converts 1897 and the church expanded along the coastal strip of some fifty miles. Opposition followed, converts were shot, workers were attacked: a disciplined church resulted, organised on indigenous lines. By 1909 1400 had left heathenism and there were 293 communicants.

Mrs Mackenzie died of blackwater fever in 1908. Melbourne doctors advised against James's return to the tropics, so he was appointed to Korea in 1910. In 1917 he returned to Santo to complete and revise translations for the church. There he addressed the Mission synod on the Nevius methods used by the church in Korea. In 1912 he married fellow-missionary Mary Kelly of Boweya, Vic. His appointments included superintendent Fusan Leper Hospital, which had 54 patients in 1912, while at his retirement there were 600 inpatients and 500 outpatients. He was honoured by the Emperor of Japan for this work. He had four daughters, two of whom served in Korea, Dr Helen Mackenzie MBE and Sister Cath Mackenzie MBE. A third, Sheila, served as a nurse at the Paton Memorial Hospital, Vanuatu.

Mackenzie retired to Melbourne 1939. He was moderator of the Vic General Assembly 1940 'in recognition of a long and distinguished life of service' (Mem Min Gen Ass 1956).

James N Mackenzie, Mission to Lepers (1949) (autobiography); Helen Mackenzie, unpublished biography in preparation; J G Miller, Live. A History of Church Planting in Vanuatu vol VII (Lawson, 1990)

J GRAHAM MILLER