Next of Kin plaque : Corporal J K MacKenzie, 14 Battalion, AIF

Bronze next of kin plaque, showing on the obverse, Britannia holding a laurel wreath, the British lion, dolphins, a spray of oak leaves and the words 'HE DIED FOR FREEDOM AND HONOUR' around the edge. Beneath the main figures, the British lion defeats the German eagle. The initials 'ECP', for the designer Edward Carter Preston appear above the lion's right forepaw. A raised rectangle above the lion's head bears the name 'JOHN KENNETH McKENZIE [Sic]'. A checker's mark, '16', is impressed behind the lion's rear right paw.

John (Jack) Kenneth Mackenzie was born at Blairgowrie, Perthshire, Scotland, in 1879. Before he emigrated to Australia he had been apprenticed as a gardener for 4 years, on the 7th Duke of Atholl's estate, and served for 3 years as Pipe Major of the Ayrshire Artillery.

He was working as a storekeeper at Urana, NSW, when he enlisted in the AIF at Cootamundra on 26 August 1916. He had married May Laird at Urana the previous year.

After initial training at the Cootamundra and Liverpool Camps, Mackenzie was assigned as a private, service number 6789, to the 22nd reinforcements for the 14th Battalion. He sailed from Sydney for England aboard SS Napier, taking his bagpipes with him. Mackenzie was made an acting lance corporal for the duration of the voyage only and reverted to private when the ship arrived at Devonport, England, on 28 January 1917.

The reinforcements moved to the 4th Training Battalion at Codford, but Mackenzie developed a severe eye infection a few days later and spent the next two months as a patient at the King George Hospital in London. He returned to training in April and finally joined his battalion in Belgium in August. Although 14th Battalion had its own band Mackenzie immediately organised an additional pipe band from some of the Scottish members of the battalion who had also brought their bagpipes with them, and was appointed its Pipe Major. Mackenzie was promoted to corporal on 2 September.

At 6.30 am on 25 September Mackenzie was one of a party of men on fatigue duty near Brigade Headquarters, laying duckboards and fetching additional ammunition from the dump in anticipation of an attack planned for the following day at Zonnebeke near Ypres. He received a shrapnel wound to his face and throat. Shrapnel from the same shell killed Captain Thomas Templeton outright. Mackenzie was evacuated to 10th (British) Casualty Clearing Station at Poperinghe but he died later the same day while undergoing surgery. He was buried at the Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery.

In response to enquiries made to the Red Cross by his wife, one of Mackenzie's fellow soldiers wrote: '[he] was tall, kind and affectionate in looks ...very broad shouldered...gifted with every feature which goes to make a true-blooded highlander...he was in every way an ideal man...[He left behind] a beloved wife, for whom he had the greatest affection.'

This commemorative plaque was sent to May Mackenzie, together with a letter querying the spelling of his surname and an offer to correct the naming on the plaque if it should be incorrect. She replied that the spelling 'McKenzie' on the plaque was indeed wrong, but that she was happy to accept the plaque as it was.