Joseph Cochrane Macky was born in Auckland, North Island, New Zealand, on the 6th March 1855, the son of Thomas Lindsay and Catherine Macky, (née Cochrane). He was the second eldest of four known children, and his mother died in 1859, when he was aged just 4 years.
His father was an accountant, and Joseph was educated at Auckland High School, after which he trained in the soft goods trade with Messrs T.H. Hall of Auckland, and then, for twelve years was connected with local firm Messrs. Archibald Clark and Sons.
In 1878, he married Isabella Campbell Kennedy in New Zealand, and the couple had at least four children – Thomas Hugh, born in 1881, Archibald, born in 1883, Isabella Wilson, born in 1885, and the youngest being John Wallace, known as “Jack”, born in 1887.
In 1882, he helped to found the firm of Macky, Logan, Steen and Company, a colonial brokerage firm, and in the same year he became a councillor for the Borough of Devonport, in Auckland. He subsequently served as Mayor for several years and was appointed to the Auckland Harbour Board in 1898.
On the 7th August 1887, his wife died, aged 38 years, and the following year, on the 11th October 1888, he married Janette Mary Isabell Birrell in Victoria, Australia. The couple had four children – Stewart, born in 1890, Frank, born in 1891, Dorothy Mary, born in 1894, and Joseph Cecil Douglas, who was born in 1899.
By 1915, this firm had become Macky, Logan, Caldwell and Company of Elliot Street, Auckland, and in that year, Joseph Macky decided to travel to England, via the United States of America, with his wife and son Jack. Jack was accompanied by a friend Mr. Samuel Jackson Hanna, son of an Auckland solicitor and they both intended to join the British armed forces to fight at the front.
In the spring of 1915, the party began their journey on board the Niagara by crossing the Pacific Ocean to the east coast of America, arriving in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, on the 10th May. At this point, Jack Macky and his friend went ahead of the couple and embarked on an earlier crossing to England, which may have saved their lives, as they both arrived safely! Mr. and Mrs Macky took a train to New York and boarded the Lusitania as second cabin passengers at her berth at Pier 54 in New York harbour on 1st May 1915, in time for her 10.00 a.m. sailing.
This was delayed until the afternoon; however, as she had to embark passengers, crew and cargo from the Anchor Lines ship Cameronia, which had been requisitioned by the British Admiralty for war work at the end of April. She finally left the port just after mid-day and just six days later, on the afternoon of 7th May; she was torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine U-20. At that point, she was twelve miles off the coast of southern Ireland and only 250 miles hours away from the safety of her Liverpool home port.
Both Joseph Macky and his wife lost their lives as a result of the torpedoing and as neither of their bodies was ever recovered and identified afterwards, neither has a known grave. He was aged 59 years and Mary Macky was 56.
The 19th May 1915 edition of New Zealand newspaper The Otago Witness reported: -
An Auckland telegram states that Mr. John Macky cables that he is safe in London. He arrived a week in advance of the Lusitania, on which his father and mother were passengers.
Both Jack Macky and his friend Samuel Hanna enlisted in the Royal Navy and survived the war having served with distinction. Macky was to win a Military Cross, serving with an armoured car unit in Palestine (presumably a unit under Army command), and Hanna, who was also attached to an armoured car section of The Royal Naval Air Service, went on to win a Distinguished Service Cross in 1917.
New Zealand Birth Index 1840 – 1950, New Zealand Marriage Index 1840 – 1937, Victoria Australia Marriage Index 1837 – 1950, Canadian Passenger Lists 1865 – 1935, U.S. Border Crossings from Canada to U.S. 1895 – 1960, Cunard Records, Auckland Grammar School Chronicle, City of Auckland, Dominion, King’s College Register, Otago Daily Times, Otago Witness, PRO BT 100/345, Deaths at Sea 1871 – 1968, Graham Maddocks, Trevor Richards, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.