Sir Clutha MacKenzie: 1895 - 1966

A son of Sir Thomas MacKenzie, who was high Commissioner in London and was previously a Liberal politician (and Prime Minister in 1912), he enlisted in the army in world war I. He was blinded at Gallipoli. Author and worker for the blind, Member of Parliament for the Reform Party.  Director of the NZ Institute for the Blind (1923–38). Representative in New Zealand, India and USA, for St Dunstan’s Hostel for Blinded Soldiers.  Appointed to UNESCO in 1949. to help Braille till 1951. He served on United Nations’ missions to report on blindness in  Turkey (1950); Ceylon, Singapore and Indonesia (1952); India (1953) and Pakistan (1953–55). He was chairman of the World Braille Council (1952) and a member of the Executive Council of the World Council for the Welfare of the Blind. In 1953 he served on the Royal Commonwealth Society for the Blind Preparatory Mission to East Africa. For the World Council he undertook missions to Egypt, Uganda and the Aden Protectorate in 1954. From 1955 to 1956 he was director of the Uganda Foundation for the Blind.1956 the United Nations appointed him Director of the Uganda Rural Project until 1958. In 1960 he was commissioned by United Nations to write on ‘The Rural Training of the Blind of Emergent Countries.’  In addition he has published ‘Tales of a Trooper ‘(1921) and ‘World Braille Usage’ (1954). He initiated and edited the ‘Chronicles of the NZEF. In 1935 he was created Knight Bachelor and in 1947 he was awarded the Kaiser Hind Gold Medal for his services to India.