Lord Hector MacKenzie was born in 1940 at Killantringan Lighthouse, where his father was Assistant Lighthouse Keeper (ALK). The family subsequently moved to Holy Island, and the Erraid Shore Station when his father was posted to Dubh Artach. His father’s promotion to Principal Keeper, and transfer to Skerryvore, saw the family move a few doors along the street at Erraid. Then followed time at Tiumpan Head and Rona as the family were moved around the Service.
Hector MacKenzie did a stint as relief keeper at Rona in the early 1960s, but then trained as a nurse. He came back to lighthouses with the Clyde Lighthouses Trust in 1964 and served as Assistant Lightkeeper at Toward Lighthouse for a few years. With the establishment of Clydeport to manage the navigation of the Clyde, it became apparent that the lights would soon be automated, so once again Hector MacKenzie turned to nursing.
After a three-year stint as ALK at Toward Point lighthouse (then part of the Clyde Lighthouses Trust (CLT), he moved to Whitehaven to train as a general nurse. Following that, he enjoyed a distinguished career as a union leader – he was elected General Secretary of the Confederation of Health Service Employees (COHSE) in 1987, served as joint General Secretary of UNISON for seven years, and was elected President of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) for the year 1988–9. He joined the House of Lords as a working peer in 1999.