Lieutenant-Colonel Hugh Mackenzie
Queen’s Own Cameron Highlanders

Hugh Mackenzie had kept the battalion together during peacetime, during rough times, leading up to war. He was the fellow who mobilized us, and sure why not give him his due of taking the battalion over than then sending him back. He had earned that many times over, one more bod on a troop ship with three or four thousand.

(Norman Ross, interview, 20 July 1979)

Born on 23 June 1884 in Castleton, Scotland, Hugh Mackenzie moved to Winnipeg several years after serving in the Boer War. He enlisted as a private in the 43rd Battalion in December 1914 and was promoted to regimental quartermaster sergeant by the time the unit deployed to France in February 1916. He received a commission six months later and by 1917 became honorary captain and quartermaster for the battalion. He assumed command of the Queen’s Own Cameron Highlanders of Canada in March 1938.

“It had to come and we are ready!” Mackenzie announced on the declaration of war in September 1939. Having been elected to the Winnipeg city council in 1937, he stepped away from municipal duties to mobilize his regiment. Despite being fifty-five in not the best of health, he led the Camerons overseas in December 1940. Due to medical reasons, he returned home in February 1941, passing command over to Major G.F. Dudley, fellow First World War veteran and former commanding officer of the Winnipeg Rifles from 1927 to 1934.

In the aftermath of the Dieppe Raid of 19 August 1942, Lieutenant-Colonel D.G. Cunningham wrote to Mackenzie, “The pipes were played on the shores of France … As you so well know, the music of the pipes was greatly appreciated by the men of the battalion.” Cunningham, who had succeeded Lieutenant-Colonel A.C. Gostling, killed in the raid, regretfully added, “During the withdrawal the re-embarkation several sets of pips were lost. This is, sir, a very great blow to the regiment. In spite of this we are doing everything possible to build up the band again as quickly as possible.” Through the Caledonian Society, of which he was past president, Mackenzie fundraised to buy new pipes for his old regiment.

He died in Winnipeg on 11 February 1949