Major-General Sir Colin John Mackenzie (26 November 1861 – 7 July 1956) was a British soldier and Chief of the General Staff, the head of the Canadian Militia (later the Canadian Army), from 1910 until 1913. Background Mackenzie was the eldest son of Major-General Colin Mackenzie, of the Madras Staff Corps, by Victoria Henrietta Mackinnon (the eldest daughter of Charles Mackinnon of Corriechatachan). His paternal grandfather, John Mackenzie of Inverness, a banker, was descended from the Mackenzies of Portmore. Military career Educated at Edinburgh Academy and at Royal Military College, Sandhurst, Mackenzie was commissioned into the Bedfordshire Regiment of the British Army, at the time the 16th Regiment of Foot in January, 1881, but soon transferred into the Seaforth Highlanders. He took part in the Nile expedition of 1882, the Burma expedition of 1886 and the Hazara expedition in 1888, and was promoted to captain on 25 October 1889. Following promotion to major on 27 April 1892, he served as Deputy Assistant Adjutant General for the Quetta District of India from 1892 to 1896. He also took part in the Waziristan expedition of 1894 and the Nile expedition of 1898. He then attended and later graduated from the Staff College, Camberley. The following year Mackenzie went to South Africa on the outbreak of the Second Boer War, and from 1900 he served as Director of Intelligence on the staff of the Commander-in-Chief, Lord Roberts. In a despatch dated 31 March 1900, Lord Roberts described how Mackenzie "afforded … material assistance by the accurate and valuable reports he submitted". He received the brevet rank of lieutenant colonel on 29 November 1900. In the later stages of the war, he became Military Governor of Johannesburg. Following the end of hostilities in June 1902, he returned to the United Kingdom in the SS Dunottar Castle, which arrived at Southampton the following month. For his service in the war, Mackenzie was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB) in the April 1901 South Africa Honours list (the award was dated to 29 November 1900), and he received the actual decoration after his return home, from King Edward VII at Buckingham Palace on 24 October 1902. In September 1902 he received the substantive rank of lieutenant-colonel, and was appointed Assistant Quartermaster General for the 5th Division, within the 2nd Army Corps, based in Dover as part of the staff of the South-Eastern