View entry
Name: MACKAY, Huntly Brodie DSO (Capt. RE)
Photo Source: grave photo by Kevin Patience
Birth Date: 14.3.1858 Ontario, Canada
Death Date: 16.4.1891 Mombasa, fever, buried at Kisauni
Nationality: Canadian
First Date: 1890
Last Date: 1891
Profession: Hobley - 1890 - Engineer in charge of building a narrow gauge light railway, not to Uganda, as was often asserted later, but only through the arid zone, and past the tsetse fly belt
Area: Mombasa
Book Reference: Hobley, EAHB 1905, North, EA Diary, IBEA, EAHB 1906, DSO, EAHB 1904, Grave
War Service: Royal Engineers
General Information:
The railway was only 2 ft. gauge, and was really of too light a character to serve the purpose for which it was intended. ........…..
Died a few weeks after the first locomotive tried to cross the embankment at Changamwe. Buried in the Freretown cemetery. He was a great loss and if he had been spared would have made his mark in the country.
EAHB 1905 - Capt. H.B. Mackay - IBEA Co. General Africa Staff - appointed 31st May 1890 (died 16th April 1891)
North - Appt. to go to Uganda with Sir Francis de Winton and refused to serve under Capt. F. Lugard when command of expdn. changed; Acting Administrator IBEA Co. Mombasa 1891; responsible for initial construction of Company's "Light Railway" to Mazeras. d. 16/4/1891 - fever
IBEA Co. - Nominal List of British Born Subjects resident in IBEA Territories within the Sultans Domain, 30 April 1891 - Capt. H.B. Mackay, Canada, Acting Administrator General
DSO - became Lieut. Royal Engineers 25/6/1881, and Captain 20/12/1889. He served with the Bechuanaland Expedition under Sir C. Warren in 1884-5 on special service. Served in the expedition against the Younies, on the West Coast of Africa in 1887-8; was mentioned in Despatches, and created a Companion of the Distinguished Service Order (London Gazette 12/4/1899) - For services during the operations in the Suly-mah District. He was promoted to Captain and died in 1891.
EAHB 1905 - Capt. H.B. Mackay, RE Acting Administrator of IBEA Co. 1891?
Web - Huntly belonged to 'a good Highland family'. His early years were spent in Canada where he was admitted to the Royal Military College, topping his class in his final examination. He obtained a commission in the Royal Engineers on 25 June 1881. In 1884 he was appointed as a staff captain in the Bechuanaland campaign. Sent by the War Office to the West Coast of Africa, he supervised the erection of forts at Sierra Leone until 1889. He received the Distinguished Services Order for his part in the expedition to the Sulymah district.
He returned to England in poor health in 1889 but returned to Africa where he died the following year of West Coast Fever.
FindaGrave at Kisauni cemetery Cpt Huntly Brodie MacKay BIRTH 14 Mar 1858 Ontario, Canada DEATH 16 Apr 1891 (aged 33) Mombasa, Kenya BURIAL Kisauni Cemetery Mombasa : Inscrription: In memory of Captain Huntly Brodie Mackay, D.S.O. Royal Engineers, Acting-Administrator, Imperial British East Africa Company Born 14th March 1858 Died 16th April 1891