Mackenzie graduated in law from the University of Edinburgh in 1934[1] and joined Gray's Inn to train as a barrister, succeeding in Bar examinations in the Trinity term of 1936.
[3] In the work he studied in particular the propaganda of the First World War, the contemporary German Ministry of Propaganda and the Italian Ministry of Popular Culture, and the Soviet Union, and the concerns of other countries about excessive government interference in news and culture.
[6] Mackenzie identifies seven requirements for successful propaganda: repetition, colour, kernel of truth, slogans, specific objective, concealed motive, and timing.
[7] In July 1940, Mackenzie was commissioned into the Gordon Highlanders[8] and became Deputy Assistant of Public Relations to the British 21st Army Group.
He was killed at Rheine, Westphalia, in the final weeks of fighting in the European theatre of the war, at which time he was an acting major.