Elsie Mackay

Elsie Mackay
Elsie Mackay (as Poppy Wyndham) and Taylor Holmes in Nothing But the Truth (1920)
Born	1893 Simla, India
Died	13 March 1928(1928-03-13) (aged 35) Lost in the Atlantic Ocean
Nationality	British
Other names	Poppy Wyndham
Occupation	Actress, Interior designer, Aviator
Spouse(s)	Dennis Wyndham

Elsie Mackay (c. 1893– c. 13 March 1928) was a British actress, interior decorator and pioneering aviator who died attempting to cross the Atlantic Ocean with Walter G. R. Hinchliffe in a single engined Stinson Detroiter. Her name as an actress was Poppy Wyndham.

She was born in 1893 in Simla, India, to James Mackay, 1st Earl of Inchcape of Strathnaver, a British colonial administrator in India who became chairman of the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company and Jean Paterson Shanks. Her father was serving as President of the Bengal Chamber of Commerce, as a member of the Legislative Council of the Viceroy of India, and as a member of the Council of the Secretary of State for India.

She was reportedly disinherited by her family after eloping with actor Dennis Wyndham to be married on 23 May 1917. She appeared on the stage and screen as Poppy Wyndham from 1919 through 1921. This marriage was annulled in 1922.

Poppy Wyndham's film career included:

After the marriage to Wyndham was annulled she returned to her family and developed a career as an interior decorator, creating lavish interiors, state rooms and public spaces for her father's shipping line, the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company (P&O). In 1923 she launched the RMS Maloja, and went on to design much of the interiors for the four P&O "R" class ships of 1925: SS Rawalpindi, SS Ranchi, SS Ranpura and SS Rajputana, plus the RMS Viceroy of India in 1927.