Background
Amelia was the son of Robert Robyn, of Scone, Perthshire, and Jean, daughter of Basil Menzies.
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Amelia was the son of Robert Robyn, of Scone, Perthshire, and Jean, daughter of Basil Menzies.
He was educated at the University of Edinburgh and was called to the Bar, Lincoln"s Inn, in 1886.
He served as Secretary of State for Air under Ramsay MacDonald between 1930 and 1931. Mackenzie published The Overseer"s Handbook in 1889 and became a King"s Counsel in 1914. He was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1917 and a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1918.
The latter year he became Chairman of the Committee on Production, a position he held until 1919.
He was then President of the Industrial Court between 1919 and 1926 and Chairman of the National Wages Board for Railways between 1920 and 1926, of the Industrial Delegation to Canada and the United States of America between 1926 and 1927 and of the Departmental Committee on the Shop Hours Acting 1927. He was made a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath in 1926.
In 1929 Mackenzie was raised to the peerage as Baron Amulree, of Strathbraan in the County of Perth. In October 1930 he was appointed Secretary of State for Air in Ramsay MacDonald"s second Labour government (succeeding the deceased Lord Thomson), with a seat in the cabinet, and was sworn of the Privy Council at the same time.
Lord Amulree also chaired the Newfoundland Royal Commission in 1933, which prepared a report on the future of Newfoundland as a dominion in the British Empire.
Lord Amulree married Lilian, daughter of West. H. Bradbury, in 1897. She died at Cheam, Surrey, in June 1916.
He was one of the few Labour politicians to follow MacDonald into the National Government, where he retained his post until the reconstruction of the government after the November 1931 general election, although not as a member of the cabinet.