Sir George Makgill, 11th Baronet, ''de jure'' 11th Viscount of Oxfuird (24 December 1868 in

Stirling Stirling (; sco, Stirlin; gd, Sruighlea ) is a city in central Scotland, northeast of Glasgow and north-west of Edinburgh. The market town, surrounded by rich farmland, grew up connecting the royal citadel, the medieval old town with its me ...

– 16 October 1926 in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

) was a Scottish baronet who was also a novelist and right-wing propagandist. Sir_George_Makgill

Biography

George Makgill was the son of Captain Sir John Makgill 10th baronet, and Margaret Isabella Haldane, sister of

Lord Haldane Richard Burdon Haldane, 1st Viscount Haldane, (; 30 July 1856 – 19 August 1928) was a British lawyer and philosopher and an influential Liberal and later Labour politician. He was Secretary of State for War between 1905 and 1912 during w ...

. He was the grandson of George Makgill, 9th Baronet. Educated privately, Makgill lived for several years in New Zealand where his father had a station at

Waiuku Waiuku is a rural town in the Auckland Region in the North Island of New Zealand. It is located at the southern end of the Waiuku River, which is an estuarial arm of the Manukau Harbour, and lies on the isthmus of the Āwhitu Peninsula, which ...

. In 1891 he married Frances Elizabeth Grant of Merchiston,

Otago Otago (, ; mi, Ōtākou ) is a region of New Zealand located in the southern half of the South Island administered by the Otago Regional Council. It has an area of approximately , making it the country's second largest local government reg ...

. After his father died in 1906, Makgill established his claim to the Baronetcy of Makgill, and continued to petition for the revival of the Lordship and Viscountcy of Oxfuird. As Sir George Makgill, he settled in

Eye, Suffolk Eye () is a market town and civil parish in the north of the English county of Suffolk, about south of Diss, north of Ipswich and south-west of Norwich. The population in the 2011 Census of 2,154 was estimated to be 2,361 in 2019. It lies ...

, leasing

Yaxley Hall Yaxley is a small village just west of Eye in Suffolk, England. The name means 'cuckoo-clearing'. Church of St. Mary Pevsner describes the north porch of the 12th-century church as 'one of the most swagger in Suffolk'. Inside the church are t ...

, an Elizabethan mansion, from Lord Henniker. During the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

Makgill was Secretary to the Anti-German Union, later renamed the

British Empire Union The British Empire Union (BEU) was created in the United Kingdom during the First World War, in 1916, after changing its name from the Anti-German Union, which had been founded in April 1915. From December 1922 to summer 1952, it published a regula ...

. In 1915 and 1916, he brought a lawsuit to strip the German-born banker

Ernest Cassel Sir Ernest Joseph Cassel, (3 March 1852 – 21 September 1921) was a British merchant banker and capitalist. Born and raised in Prussia, he moved to England at the age of 17. Life and career Cassel was born in Cologne, in the Rhine Province ...

and American-born of German parents railway financier

Edgar Speyer Sir Edgar Speyer, 1st Baronet (7 September 1862 – 16 February 1932) was an American-born financier and philanthropist. Barker 2004. He became a British subject in 1892 and was chairman of Speyer Brothers, the British branch of the Speyer fami ...

of their

Privy Council A privy council is a body that advises the head of state of a state, typically, but not always, in the context of a monarchic government. The word "privy" means "private" or "secret"; thus, a privy council was originally a committee of the mon ...

membership; the case was dismissed, but Edgar Speyer's British citizenship was stripped after the war. After the war, business interests invited him to set up a private intelligence network, the Industrial Intelligence Board, to monitor communists, trade unionists and industrial unrest. The IIB's agents included

Maxwell Knight Charles Henry Maxwell Knight OBE, known as Maxwell Knight, (9 July 1900 – 27 January 1968) was a British spymaster, naturalist and broadcaster, reputedly a model for the James Bond character "M". He played major roles in surveillance of an e ...

and John Baker White, who later characterized Makgill as "perhaps the greatest Intelligence officer produced in this century". In 1920, he announced himself as a People's League parliamentary candidate for East Leyton and, in 1921, as an Anti-Waste League candidate. He became General Secretary of the Empire Producers' Organization. He was also a member of the

Anti-Socialist Union The Anti-Socialist Union was a British political pressure group that supported free trade economics and opposed socialism. It was active from 1908 to 1948 with its heyday occurring before the First World War. Organizational history Formation Coming ...

and was for a time part of a tendency within that group that was close to the

British Fascists The British Fascists was the first political organisation in the United Kingdom to claim the label of fascist, although the group had little ideological unity apart from anti-socialism for much of its existence, and was strongly associated with ...

. In 1926, he managed the day-to-day operations of the Organization for the Maintenance of Supplies, set up to supply and maintain blackleg workers during that year's

general strike A general strike refers to a strike action in which participants cease all economic activity, such as working, to strengthen the bargaining position of a trade union or achieve a common social or political goal. They are organised by large co ...

. Makgill died in October 1926 in London, England.

Family

He had two sons and two daughters; his eldest son John Donald Makgill (born 1899) inherited the baronetcy.

Publications

Makgill's novels were often colonial adventure stories; he also wrote for

Austin Harrison Austin Frederic Harrison (1873–1928) was a British journalist and editor, best known for his editorship of ''The English Review'' from 1909 until 1923. Biography Early life and career Born in London, Harrison was the son of the author and jur ...

's ''English Review'' on the Anti-German Union (December 1915 and February 1916) and on imperial reconstruction (April 1917). *(as Victor Waite) ''Cross Trails'', 1898 *(as Mungo Ballas),''Outside and overseas: being the history of Captain Mungo Ballas, styled of Ballasburn, in the shire of Fife; with some account of his voyages, adventures, and attempts to found a kingdom in the South Seas as told by his nephew and namesake, Mungo Ballas, last of the race and house of the name'', 1903 *''Blacklaw'', 1914 *''Felons'', 1915 *(as Emerson C. Hambrook) ''The Red To-Morrow,'' 1920 Extant short stories include: * Head of the Firm (1903)''Strand Magazine,'' 1903

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Makgill, George 1868 births 1926 deaths Scottish novelists People from Eye, Suffolk People from Stirling Baronets in the Baronetage of Nova Scotia Scottish anti-communists Oxfuird, George Mackgill, 11th Viscount of