Margaret Mackay, Granddaughter of George Leslie Mackay, Died at 102
George Leslie Mackay, a Presbyterian missionary based in late nineteenth-century Tamsui, might be the most well-known Canadian in Taiwan. His last surviving granddaughter, Margaret, passed away earlier this week.
By Yu-Han Huang
Edited by S. Chung
On August 21, 2021, Margaret Mackay, one of George Leslie Mackay’s granddaughters, passed away in Toronto, Canada. She was 102.
George Leslie Mackay (1844-1901) was widely known in Taiwan as an educator, a physician, and the first Presbyterian missionary to northern Taiwan. Born in Zorra, Oxford County, Ontario, he received theological training at Knox College in Toronto and later at Princeton Theological Seminary and the University of Edinburgh. In 1871, he was commissioned by the Canadian Presbyterian Church to advance new missionary endeavors in China. After short stays in Guangdong, he eventually decided to relocate to Tamsui in northern Taiwan; there, he formally established the first church in northern Taiwan on April 10, 1872.
During his early years in Tamsui, George Leslie Mackay itinerated across northern Taiwan. Starting with dentistry and medicine services, he gradually won the trust and respect of the local people, some of whom became his students and later pastors of the churches they founded. In addition to founding 60 churches, he established a girl’s school and Oxford College that provided theology and science training. He also established the first medical facility (now Mackay Memorial Hospital) that practices Western biomedicine in northern Taiwan. In 1879, he married Tiu Chhang-miâ (張聰明), a Taiwanese pastor and his first woman convert. They had three children: Mary “Tan” Mackay, Bella “Koa” Mackay, and George William Mackay.
George Leslie Mackay is also known as an amateur anthropologist. In his travels across northern Taiwan, he collected approximately 600 items of Han Chinese and Indigenous Taiwanese artifacts, including weaponry, body ornaments, clothing, music instruments, and cleaning materials. When he temporarily returned to Canada in 1893, he donated part of his collections to Knox College, his alma mater. In 1915, these items were transferred to Royal Ontario Museum. Today, some of these artifacts are exhibited at ROM’s Africa, Americas, and Asia-Pacific Gallery. He also published a memoir titled From Far Formosa, in which he provided details about his early life, activities in Taiwan, and records of Taiwanese folklore and plant he observed.
George William Mackay (1882-1963), the youngest child of George Leslie Mackay and Margaret’s father, was a missionary and an educator as well. After graduating from Clark University in Massachusetts with a Master’s degree in educational management, he returned to Taiwan in 1911 and started Tamsui Middle School, now Tamkang High School. In addition to Margaret, his youngest daughter, he had four children: Leslie, Anna, Isabel, and John Ross Mackay, a respected geographer who served as Professor of Geology and Geography at University of British Columbia.
Margaret Mackay was born in 1919 in Tamsui, Taiwan, where she lived with her family until leaving for Kobe, Japan to go to school with her siblings. She then moved to Canada for postsecondary education and settlement. In 1955, she moved back to Tamsui to take care of her parents and served at a local church. After her father’s decease, she continually assisted her mother Jean Ross Mackay’s (1882-1969) ministry until she decided to return to Canada due to health factors in 1968. In the rest of her life, she lived in Toronto and worked as an administrator at the University of Toronto. She was George Leslie Mackay’s last surviving grandchild. A memorial service will take place at Knox Presbyterian Church in downtown Toronto at 10 am EST, August 26.
Presbyterian Church in Taiwan (PCT) issued a letter of condolences earlier this week. According to PCT, the year 2022 will be the 150th anniversary of George Leslie Mackay’s arrival in Taiwan, and a series of events will be held to honor the Mackay family’s contribution to Taiwan.
