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"Joseph Macky (1855 - 1915), 60, was a British subject from
Devonport, New Zealand (a suburb of Auckland, New Zealand) traveling
second cabin aboard Lusitania with his wife, Mary. Both Joseph and
Mary were lost in the Lusitania sinking. Mary is reported to have
given up her seat in a lifeboat to a younger woman and went down
with the ship with her husband. Joseph Macky was the descendant of
Thomas Macky (died 1896 in Devonport), who set up a trust for the
Unitarian church there. He was also of the same family of Dr. Dill
Macky, who was known in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, and had
passed before the Lusitania sinking. Joseph was born in 1855 and
educated on the North Shore of Auckland. He founded the firm Macky,
Logan, Steen and Company (later Macky, Logan, Caldwell, Limited)
and married Mary Birrell of Victoria, Australia. Macky became Mayor
of Devonport in 1896 and retired near the end of his fourth term
in 1900. Macky also held a seat on the Auckland Harbour Board as
the Devonport Borough representative. Macky was also known as a
prominent Auckland yachtsman. Joseph and Mary last visited Australia
in 1914. Mary wrote to a friend in Sydney just before sailing from
Auckland, saying that she and Joseph were going to England, via
New York, with their son Jack, who wished to enlist with an English
regiment. Their son is not listed on the passenger manifest. Joseph
Macky and his wife Mary were lost in the Lusitania sinking on 7
May 1915. According to the Ashburton Guardian of 24 August 1915,
Page 3, Joseph and Mary Macky are said to have met their ends with
calm heroism. When a seat in a lifeboat was offered to Mary, she
declined and insisted that a younger woman passenger take it. Mary
was quoted as saying, "I am getting old and would rather stay with
my husband. You are younger and have life before you." Joseph and
Mary were last seen standing on deck together, calmly awaiting
the end. The younger woman who took the seat in the lifeboat later
advertised in the papers to obtain the address of Joseph and Mary's
son Jack Macky to tell him the story of his parents' death. According
to the 11 May 1915 Otago Daily Times, the Mackys were traveling with
a S. Hanna, the son of Auckland solicitor (lawyer) Andrew Hanna,
was also on board Lusitania and survived. No such name appears on
the Lusitania passenger list. Neither Joseph nor Mary's bodies were
either recovered or identified. A bronze plaque to Joseph and Mary
Macky is on one wall of the Auckland Unitarian church, and a manse
was given to the church in their memory." —The Lusitania Resource
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