The Whanganui Sensation

The story of Charles Mackay is odd to say the least, firstly an honoured mayor, then convicted of attempted murder then killed as part of a communist riot.
Charles Ewing Mackay was born in Nelson on June 29, 1875, to Jessie and Joseph Mackay. Joseph was headmaster of Wellington College for 10 years and Charles also attended the school.
He went on to Canterbury College then to university and obtained a Bachelor of Arts then a Bachelor of Laws going on to be admitted to the bar as a lawyer.
Charles started his own law firm in Whanganui and also began a career in politics joining the Mataongaonga Road Board and then the Whanganui Borough Council.
He was elected mayor of Whanganui for two separate terms. He helped establish the Sarjeant Gallery.
Charles was a somewhat controversial mayor - his projects were ambitious and often far sighted but also expensive. He wanted an electric tramway and new roading along with bridges built.
During the First World War he suffered the first hit to his reputation for not serving.
In 1920, he met Walter D’Arcy Cresswell - a poet and writer - who was visiting relatives in Whanganui.
It would be his downfall. Five days after they met Cresswell was shot in the chest and injured by Mackay.
Cresswell alleged that Mackay had made homosexual advances to him and that he had led him on to get evidence and wanted him to resign the mayoralty.
Mackay was arrested and charged with attempted murder which he pleaded guilty to before a packed courtroom then was sentenced to 15 years hard labour by Sir Robert Stout, the chief justice.
His wife, Isobel Mary Agnes Duncan, divorced him and on his release from prison in 1926 he went to England where he worked as a journalist for the Sunday Express. He was released early on the understanding that he left New Zealand.
In 1929, he was working in Berlin, covering the street battles between communists and police when he was shot dead by a police officer who thought he was one of the communists.
The German Foreign Office expressed regret for the shooting.
It’s unclear now exactly what happened between Mackay and Cresswell. It was mostly likely Mackay was a closeted gay man (even with a wife and three children) and it’s possible he wanted to silence Cresswell to protect his life - which he ended up losing anyway.
Now, in a more modern age, he would likely have lived a very different life.
Mackay is buried in Friedhof Priestereg cemetery in Berlin, Germany.​