Charles Mackay (mayor)

Charles Mackay (29 June 1875 – 3 May 1929) was a New Zealand lawyer, local politician, and Mayor of Wanganui between 1906 and 1920.

Born Charles Ewing Mackay (later known as Charles Evan Mackay) in Nelson in 1875, Mackay achieved a BA and LLB in law. He started a law firm in Wanganui in 1902. Gaining election to the Wanganui Borough Council in November 1905, he successfully contested the mayoralty in 1906. Mackay stood as an independent in the Wanganui electorate in the 1908 election, but was defeated by James Thomas Hogan and George Hutchison in the first ballot.

He was famously blackmailed by writer Walter D'Arcy Cresswell and in 1920, Mackay was convicted of Cresswell's attempted murder. Mackay served time in Mount Eden prison and was released in 1926. Upon his release, he moved to England and from 1928, worked in Berlin as a language teacher and part-time correspondent. In his latter function, he covered communist street riots raging after may day 1929 and was mistakenly shot dead by a policeman.

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