Sir George Makgill, 11th Baronet (24 December 1868, Stirling

Stirling

Stirling is a city and former ancient burgh in Scotland, and is at the heart of the wider Stirling council area. The city is clustered around a large fortress and medieval old-town beside the River Forth...

 – 16 October 1926, London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

) was a Scottish novelist and right-wing propagandist.

George Makgill was the son of Captain John Makgill and Margaret Isabella Haldane, sister of Lord Haldane

Richard Haldane, 1st Viscount Haldane

Richard Burdon Haldane, 1st Viscount Haldane KT, OM, PC, KC, FRS, FBA, FSA , was an influential British Liberal Imperialist and later Labour politician, lawyer and philosopher. He was Secretary of State for War between 1905 and 1912 during which time the "Haldane Reforms" were implemented...

. Educated privately, Makgill lived for several years in New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

 where his father had a station at Waiuku

Waiuku

Waiuku is a country town in the Franklin District, in the North Island of New Zealand. It is located at the southern end of the Waiuku River, which is an estuarial arm of the Manukau Harbour...

. In 1891 he married Frances Elizabeth Grant of Merchiston, Otago

Otago

Otago is a region of New Zealand in the south of the South Island. The region covers an area of approximately making it the country's second largest region. The population of Otago is...

. After his father died in 1906, Makgill established his claim to the Baronetcy of Makgill, and continued to petition for the revival of the Lordship and Viscountcy of Oxfuird

Viscount of Oxfuird

Viscount of Oxfuird is a title in the Peerage of Scotland. It was created in 1651 for Sir James Makgill, 1st Baronet, along with the subsidiary title of Lord Makgill of Cousland, also in the Peerage of Scotland, with remainder to his "heirs male of tailzie and provision whomsoever"...

. As Sir George Makgill, he settled in Eye, Suffolk

Eye, Suffolk

Eye is a small market town in the county of Suffolk, East Anglia, England, south of Diss, and on the River Dove.Eye is twinned with the town of Pouzauges in the Vendée Departement of France.-History:An island...

, leasing Yaxley Hall, an Elizabethan mansion, from Lord Henniker.

During the First World War Makgill was Secretary to the Anti-German Union, later renamed the British Empire Union

British Empire Union

The British Empire Union was created in the United Kingdom during World War I, in 1916, after changing its name from the Anti-German Union, which had been founded in 1915...

. In 1915 and 1916 he brought a lawsuit to strip the German-born banker Ernest Cassel

Ernest Cassel

Sir Ernest Joseph Cassel, GCB, GCMG, GCVO, PC was a German-born British merchant banker and capitalist.-Biography:...

 and American-born of German parents railway financier Edgar Speyer

Edgar Speyer

Sir Edgar Speyer, 1st Baronet was an American-born financier and philanthropist. He became a British subject in 1892 and was chairman of Speyer Brothers, the British branch of his family's international finance house, and a partner in the German and American branches...

 of their Privy Council

Privy council

A privy council is a body that advises the head of state of a nation, typically, but not always, in the context of a monarchic government. The word "privy" means "private" or "secret"; thus, a privy council was originally a committee of the monarch's closest advisors to give confidential advice on...

 membership: though the case was dismissed, Edgar Speyer's English citizenship was stripped after the war. After the war business interests invited him to set up a private intelligence network, the Industrial Intelligence Board, to monitor communists, trade unionists and industrial unrest. Amongst the IIB's agents were Maxwell Knight

Maxwell Knight

Charles Henry Maxwell Knight OBE, known as Maxwell Knight, was an English spymaster, naturalist and broadcaster, whilst reputedly being a model for the James Bond character M.-Spymaster:...

 and John Baker White

John Baker White

John Baker White started his career as a political activist becoming a director of a private organisation dedicated to fighting left-wing subversion. He became an amateur spy in Nazi Germany before becoming a propaganda agent during World War II. In 1945, he was elected a Conservative politician...

, who later characterized Makgill as "perhaps the greatest Intelligence officer produced in this century"

In 1920 he announced himself as a People's League parliamentary candidate for East Leyton., and in 1921 as an Anti-Waste League

Anti-Waste League

The Anti-Waste League was a political party in the United Kingdom, founded in 1921 by Lord Rothermere.The formation of the League was announced in a January 1921 edition of the Sunday Pictorial with Rothermere attacking what he saw as government waste during a time of recession. As such the party...

 candidate. He became General Secretary of the Empire Producers' Organization. He was also a member of the Anti-Socialist Union

Anti-Socialist Union

The Anti-Socialist Union was a British political pressure group that supported free trade economics and opposed socialism. It was active from 1908 to 1948 with its heyday occurring before the First World War.-Formation:...

 and was for a time part of a tendency within that group close to the British Fascists

British Fascists

The British Fascists were the first avowedly fascist organisation in the United Kingdom. William Joyce, Neil Francis Hawkins, Maxwell Knight and Arnold Leese were amongst those to have passed through the movement as members and activists.-Early years:...

.

In 1926 he managed the day-to-day operations of the Organization for the Maintenance of Supplies, set up to supply and maintain blackleg workers during the General Strike

1926 United Kingdom general strike

The 1926 general strike in the United Kingdom was a general strike that lasted nine days, from 4 May 1926 to 13 May 1926. It was called by the general council of the Trades Union Congress in an unsuccessful attempt to force the British government to act to prevent wage reduction and worsening...

.

He had two sons and two daughters; his eldest son John Donald Makgill (born 1899) inherited the baronetcy.

Makgill's novels were colonial adventure stories; he also wrote for Austin Harrison

Austin Harrison

Austin Frederic Harrison was a British journalist and editor, best known for his editorship of The English Review from 1909 until 1923.-Early life and career:...

's English Review on the Anti-German Union (December 1915 and February 1916) and on imperial reconstruction (April 1917).

Works

• (as Victor Waite) Cross trails, 1898
• (as Mungo Ballas),Outside and overseas: being the history of Captain Mungo Ballas, styled of Ballasburn, in the shire of Fife; with some account of his voyages, adventures, and attempts to found a kingdom in the South Seas as told by his nephew and namesake, Mungo Ballas, last of the race and house of the name, 1903
• Blacklaw, 1914
• Felons, 1915