John William Mackail

Who was John William Mackail?

John William Mackail O.M. was a Scottish man of letters and socialist, now best remembered as a Virgil scholar. He was also a poet, literary historian and biographer.

He was born in Ascog on Bute, the second child and only son of the Rev. John Mackail and Louisa Irving, youngest daughter of Aglionby Ross Carson, rector of Edinburgh High School. Educated first at Ayr Academy, he entered Edinburgh University in 1874 and proceeded to Balliol College, Oxford, as Warner Exhibitioner in 1877. At Oxford he took first classes in classical moderations and literae humaniores in 1881. He also obtained the Hertford, Ireland, Newdigate, Craven and Derby. He was elected to a Balliol fellowship in 1882. All looked fair for an academic career. Instead, he took up a post in the Education Department of the Privy Council in 1884. He rose to Assistant Secretary in 1903 and played a major part in setting up the system of secondary education established by the 1902 Education Act. He also helped to organise a system of voluntary inspection for the public schools. He retired from office in 1919.