James Stewart-Mackenzie, 1st Baron Seaforth

Who was James Stewart-Mackenzie, 1st Baron Seaforth?

Colonel James Alexander Francis Humberston Stewart-Mackenzie, 1st Baron Seaforth was a Scottish soldier, who was regarded by many as chief of Clan Mackenzie.

Stewart-Mackenzie was the great-grandson of Francis Mackenzie, 1st Baron Seaforth, whose title had become extinct when his four sons all predeceased him. He was educated at Glenalmond College and in 1867 was commissioned into the 9th Lancers. He served for over thirty years, retiring as the regiment's colonel. He fought at Maidan, Killa Kazi, Kabul, Sherpur and Kandahar in the Afghan War of 1878–1880. He then served as military secretary to Sir Mountstuart Grant Duff, Governor of Madras.

Following his retirement he devoted himself mainly to the management of his estates from his ancestral seat of Brahan Castle in Ross and Cromarty and was also elected to Ross and Cromarty County Council. He also carried out considerable philanthropic work in the area.

He was raised to the peerage in the 1921 New Year Honours for his services to Ross and Cromarty, taking the same title as his great-grandfather, Baron Seaforth, of Brahan in Urray in the County of Ross and Cromarty. but two years later he died of pneumonia without an heir and the title once again became extinct.