Day 12

Douglas McKay

People of Leith:
Day 12 of 100 Days of Leith we dedicate to Douglas McKay, headmaster of Leith Academy, first chairman of Port of Leith Housing Association, longtime Leith Rotary member, supporter of Leith Rugby Club and much more.

The below segment was written and submitted by President of the Leith Civic Trust, Cron Mackay.

Douglas C. McKay became headmaster of Leith Academy in 1971. He was immediately concerned about a lack of academic success and decided to visit the homes of every pupil in the school. He discovered that many of his pupils were living in extreme poverty. He and a friend, Cornie Waugh took action, and in 1975 established the Port of Leith Housing Association and Douglas became the first Chairman. It helped greatly to alleviate the sufferings that Douglas discovered. The aim of the association was to help make Leith a desirable, affordable and tolerant place to live. 

He later became a director of the Scotch Malt Whisky and soon found himself chairman when the organisation got into financial difficulties over a failed expansion project in America. The directors involved all resigned leaving Douglas as chairman to pick up the pieces. He did that admirably and sometime later he was able to retire leaving the Society in a very healthy financial position. He was rewarded with a very generous retirement payment, which he accepted in the form of bottles of whisky. He said that he expected them to “see him out”. This did not happen. He survived for a long time after the whisky disappeared. 

He was an extremely generous, jovial and capable person. A long-time member of Leith Rotary, he did a lot more for the area. He was also a keen sportsman and enjoyed watching cricket on the Links - often, I gather, from the bar.