John Kenneth MacKenzie iii
John Kenneth III, 1949 to 2024, came from a long line of MacKenzies on both his mother and father’s sides. He was born in Glenurquhart and spent his early years in Lewiston, before moving to Milton, where his grandfathers’ shops were located. They were butchers, bakers, and general merchants, who had van runs from Corrimony to as far as Lenie and Strone.
The story of Ken’s arrival into the world, written by his mother, Rosemary MacKenzie.
“When we got home after our honeymoon in Edinburgh, we went to Carrachan first, and gran asked the baker to make a big rabbit pie which we all had for tea, and then we went home to Lewiston, which was really very strange. I had the feeling that after our holiday, we should really go our separate ways. However, reality took over as I found very quickly. JK went back to work, and I stayed in Lewiston, not really knowing anyone and without a lot to do. I did get some hens and dug a bit of garden across the road to grow vegetables.
Within a month, however, I became very sick and eventually went back home to Milton to be looked after. I stayed a week but wanted to go back to our own home in Lewiston, when the doctor discovered I was pregnant. It was a pretty miserable nine months, as I was sick on and off the whole time. Fortunately, the doctor didn’t give me anything to stop me being sick. At that time, doctors were prescribing thalidomide for sickness in pregnancy, with dire effects. Lots of babies were born minus limbs and with all sorts of deformities and I could quite easily have been affected if the doctor hadn't been of the old school and left nature to take its course. I went once to Raigmore for a check-up but wouldn't go back. It was a horrendous experience, like a human cattle market. A crowd of women were herded into one room in various states of undress, with no privacy, and no one was treated like an individual.
Eventually came the day when Kenneth was born. It was a bit of a nightmare. Dad was the only one to keep me sane. I don’t even know how I got word to him. Anyway, one of my neighbours must have phoned the doctor for me (JK was in Corrimony) and he came and said there was lots of time to get to Raigmore. Dad set off with me in the car, but we only got as far as Strathard, when I was in such a state and terrified that he stopped there, and the doctor decided there wasn't time for me to reach the hospital. I was taken in there and John Kenneth was born shortly afterwards, on September 2nd 1949.
They wanted to put me into hospital the next day, but I refused. All I wanted was to get home. Fortunately, Chris managed to get time off from nursing, so she came and looked after us. It was quite a procession going back to Lewiston: mam and dad with Kenneth and me, grandpa, and gran Carrachan, the doctor's car, and the nurse. There must have been lots of people peeping out of windows!
Once I had Kenneth, I wasn't lonely anymore. I had a truly lovely time. I walked to Milton every Tuesday and Friday (JK's late nights on the van) with the pram, and having a baby meant that everyone stopped to talk and to see him. All the neighbours rallied round, and I was very happy. Off all the nice neighbours in Lewiston, Mrs. Willie MacDonald (the post), was the best, but Mrs. Fairweather, Mrs. Logan and Mrs. Murdoch, to name but a few, were good too”.
He was a lovely, little, blue-eyed, fair-haired boy, and great company for his mother. He did have a penchant for getting dirty and going where he shouldn't. On one occasion, she found him in the box where the hens' meal was kept. Another time he got into the sideboard and tried eating mustard. He didn't do that again, as his mouth blistered. She used to wedge the sideboard doors with paper, and one time he handed one of the wedges to her 'to keep him out!'
He started working in the shops and accompanying his father on his van runs when he was a young boy, and even learnt to drive in the van. He attended primary and secondary schools in the old school building in Drumnadrochit, which was eventually changed into public housing after the schools closed and moved to new premises between Balmacaan Road and Druimlon. When he was 15, he attended the Academy in Inverness to specialise in higher chemistry and physics, which were not offered in the secondary school at that time. When he was in school, he was a keen piper, but stopped playing once he got married and had his own family.
When he was a boy and young man, he was always busy working on projects, for example helping his mother lay paving stones in the old family home’s garden. It seems he could turn his hand to anything, including gardening, decorating, and remodelling flats and houses for his sons. He was very clever and did very well in school, eventually starting to study for a civil engineering degree in Aberdeen University. However, shop work called, and he started working for Fine Fare and the Coop in Aberdeen, Inverness, and Glasgow, before eventually becoming Chief Executive for the Coop, responsible for shops in Scotland and Northern Ireland, going as far as to be invited to address Scottish and British Parliament meetings about the retail industry. He always won when he played board games such as monopoly with his siblings, and his head for figures stood him in good stead in his later career. At the age of 18 he was entrusted with running one of the MacKenzie shops in Victoria Building in Drumnadrochit.
While he was working in Inverness, he met his future wife, Margaret Gordon from Nairn, and they eventually married, producing two beloved sons, who eventually married and had their own children, Kavan and Keva, from Ken and his wife Kirsten, and Ruby from Allan and Claudia. He loved his grandchildren dearly and was very proud of them, although he found it hard to show his feelings. Nothing pleased him more than having them in his home, providing special meals and parties for them and his extended family. He waited until his sons finished their school education in Aberdeen before accepting promotion to be the CoE of the Coop. His mother and father were always very proud of him, and he is another example of the many people who have left a tiny glen in the Highlands to have a huge impact on other areas of the world.
He was always busy, and even being retired did not slow him down. He was president of one of the Rotary Clubs in Glasgow, before volunteering with PROBUS. Later highlights included preparing sweets and other goodies for guisers to their house in Newton Mearns at Halloween and buying gifts to send to Ruby in Australia. The foxes that came to his garden must have been the best fed ones in Scotland, dining on Marks and Spencer chicken. His birds and squirrels were also looked after very well.
His own family was always very important to him, but he also made time for his sister, Dot, and brother, Alasdair, visiting the latter when he was very ill in Glasgow, and looking after him once he was discharged. His broad shoulders carried all of us when our father and mother passed away, and when the Foodmarket and Carrachan House were sold, the old family home in Milton. He would pick us up and drop us off at stations or airports when we travelled, and nothing was too much trouble for him. He cared for cousins when they were in hospital or studying in Glasgow or Aberdeen, and he gave a huge welcome to anyone who visited. He did everything for his wife Margaret and did not even want to go to hospital for tests before he made sure she had enough food in the house. He would take her to her hairdresser and wait for her in the car until she was ready to go home. He also cared for his staff when he was working and made sure that their work conditions were acceptable. He was firm but fair and was well-respected by his colleagues, a true Highland gentleman. He was a source of strength for his many friends, and someone they knew they could depend on.
A story about Ken by our mother. “He left first for Aberdeen University, so we had a spare room. At the same time, I had a friend, Anne, doing B and B in the village, and one day she suggested I should try it. With some trepidation, I agreed, and the first time, she sent me a couple whom she couldn’t take who had asked her if she could place them somewhere else. They came in, apparently approved of what I showed them, and moved in. I may say, that, as well as bringing me the couple, Anne lent me decent sheets for the bed! Mine were not very posh and had been well worn.
Incidentally, when I washed them and hung them on the line, to my horror, my two sons had been playing with an air rifle and hit them with pellets! Fortunately, they were only marked, and I was able to wash out the evidence.”
Fortunately for him, he passed away peacefully and was not in pain, with Ken, Alasdair, and Margaret beside him. It was a huge shock for us all because we thought he would always be with us, but that was not to be. He will always be in our hearts and memories, and we are all blessed to have known him, even if it was for too short a time.
Rest in peace. You deserve to rest after all your hard work and know that you will be sorely missed by us all. The world is emptier and darker without you.
His first birthday party.
He was always busy from a very young age. The building behind him was the old butcher’s shop at Carrachan.
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Tarring the drive at Carrachan.
He must have been about 6 in this photo. He had what was called a lazy eye at that time. This was opposite the back door at Carrachan. They had 2 railway carriages that they used for storage, and one was an office for our Uncle Ala.
Kavan, Keva, and Ruby
“Que sera, sera.
Whatever will be, will be. The future's not ours to see. Que sera, sera. What will be, will be.”