alt=Black-and-white headshot photo of Mackay facing left|thumb|Mackay
George Leslie Mackay (偕瑞理 or 馬偕 Má-kai; 21 March 1844 – 2 June 1901) was a Canadian Presbyterian missionary. He was the first Presbyterian missionary to northern Taiwan (then Formosa), serving with the Canadian Presbyterian Mission. Mackay is among the best known and most influential Westerners to have lived in Taiwan.
Early life
George Leslie Mackay was born on March 21, 1844, the youngest of six children to a pioneering Scottish family in Embro, Zorra Township, Oxford County, Canada West (now Ontario), Canada. His family was part of the Zorra Pioneers, refugees from the Sutherland Clearances in northern Scotland, who arrived in Zorra in 1830. The Zorra pioneers were Evangelical Presbyterians, for whom their church, led by lay elders, was the centre of their collective life.
He received his theological training at Knox College in Toronto (1865-1867), Princeton Theological Seminary in the United States (1870), and New College, Edinburgh in Scotland, all Presbyterian institutions. In Mackay's days Princeton and Edinburgh were important centres of advocacy and training for foreign missions.
Mission to Taiwan
thumb|left|Original building of the Oxford University College founded by Mackay in [[Tamsui District|Tamsui, Taiwan. Now named Aletheia University, the school administers a museum devoted to Mackay artifacts.]]
In 1871, Mackay became the first foreign missionary to be commissioned by the Canada Presbyterian Church (predecessor of both the Presbyterian Church in Canada and the United Church of Canada), arriving in Taiwan on December 29, 1871.
After consulting with Dr. James Laidlaw Maxwell Sr., a medical doctor serving as a Presbyterian Church of England missionary to southern Formosa (1865), Mackay arrived at Tamsui, northern Formosa in 1872, which remained his home until his death in 1901. Starting with an itinerant dentistry practice amongst the lowland aborigines, he later established churches, schools and a hospital practicing Western biomedicine.
Mackay learned to speak vernacular Taiwanese fluently and married "Minnie" Tiu (), a native Taiwanese woman. The marriage produced three children:
- Mary "Tan" Mackay
- Bella "Koa" Mackay
- George William Mackay
Mackay was described by the Rev. William Campbell, a contemporary missionary, as: