John Mackenzie, a well-known community spirited Forres businessman, has died aged 88.
He served as a town councillor, was chairman of the community council, opposed the 1960s Beeching rail closure of the Forres to Aviemore line, campaigned for the Forres bypass and played a central role in the annual Scottish Week.
John achieved all this in conjunction with running the family ironmongery business, Mackenzie & Cruickshank, which remained in family hands for 115 years.
He was born in London in May 1934 where his mother, Margaret, had trained as a nurse.
Education
John was educated in Forres then Robert Gordon’s College, Aberdeen, and joined the family business when he left school.
He went on to serve his two years’ National Service with the Royal Marines and returned to find the family business jaded after the war years.
John was on the point of emigrating to Australia when he met his future wife, Margaret (Meg).
He ditched his emigration papers and the couple married in Deeside in 1962. They settled down to turn around the fortunes of Mackenzie & Cruickshank. They welcomed three of a family, Susan, David and Euan.
They made M&Cs into a successful business, trading from both their High Street premises, and their store in Grantown-on-Spey. They retired in 1997.
John made an equal, or probably greater, impact on his community with his voluntary activities.
He had been an assistant Scout leader as a young man and not long after his marriage stood successfully for Forres Town Council four or five times, topping the poll, and even serving alongside his mother at one point.
Following the reorganisation of local government in 1975, John served on the community council, his last term of office ending in 2013.
He was chair of Forres Scottish Week and created events such as the
Riding of the Marches, which involved 100 horses, led by two mounted Glasgow
police officers.
Massed pipe bands
He helped organise massed pipe bands in a beating the retreat ceremony to mark the
end of Scottish Week. These events attracted hundreds of pipers and drummers
marching along a packed High Street. He started the Tin Hat Rally which became the Forres Theme Day.
John and a fellow businesswoman raised money to form Forres and District Pipe Band of which John became chairman.
He was appointed a Justice of the Peace and, in 1994, was appointed a burgess of Forres in recognition of his work on behalf of the town.
While chair of Forres Shopkeepers Association, he successfully argued at a public hearing, and against a top legal reporter from Edinburgh, that the Coop should remain in the High Street.
Heritage trust
In 2011, hearing that Moray Council intended to close the Tolbooth and Nelson’s Tower, he called a public meeting and formed Forres Heritage Trust, who now run both buildings, which remain open to the public.
For many years he sang in the Culbin Singers and throughout his life he maintained a love of music and the outdoors, which, as a young man, began with mountaineering, cycling and youth hostelling.
John died on May 12 and a private funeral was held. You can read the family’s announcement here.
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