grievances, he was appointed the Scottish Local Government Board's first medical inspector in 1901. The following year, he and his wife Helen collaborated on the 1903 Royal Commission for Scotland report on the health of school children in Edinburgh. Helen Mackenzie organised the studies and wrote the reports, and was present while he examined the children. The report demonstrated conclusively that the poor health condition of inner city children was related to poverty and Mackenzie presented it to the royal commission after they had surveyed 600 schoolchildren and recommended that teachers be trained in health issues. This report led to the introduction of a school meals service and medical inspection after much debate in Parliament, and recommendations were included in the 1908 Education (Scotland) Act. Mackenzie's career continued to be punctuated by fierce arguments and strong defense of his own medical findings and beliefs. In 1902, he vigorously disagreed with the Scottish medical establishment on the infectivity of tuberculosis at a meeting in Edinburgh of the Medico-Chirurgical Society. Mackenzie suggested environmental factors, public health issues he was already working to reform. He was met with opposition from Sir Henry Littlejohn and others who blamed individual habits instead. Despite butting heads with a few colleagues, Mackenzie's professional reputation only improved. In 1904, he was appointed the medical member of the Scottish Local Government Board until 1917, becoming later with the name change, a member of the Board of Health for Scotland until his 1928 retirement. While he sat on the board he gave evidence for the care of elderly and feeble minded (1908), strongly opposed the eugenics movement and the poor laws (1909) and called for a preventative health service run by the local authority instead. Mackenzie was passionate about removing the “stigma of pauperism” and believed that healthcare for the poor was a government responsibility. Mackenzie served on a number of other commissions during his long and productive career. One of the most notable was the royal commission on housing between 1913 and 1917. He actively drafted topics to be addressed and even took an interest in drafting the 1919 Housing Bill itself. His champion cause was to introduce state-subsidised council housing. He was considered by his peers to have played an effective role in the inclusion of this issue. Public health legacy As a Highlander, Mackenzie was especially invested in developing a healthcare plan for his home. His treatment