1. Elsie Mackay was born on 21 August 1893 in Simla, West Bengal, India, to James Mackay, 1st Earl of Inchcape of Strathnaver, a British colonial administrator in India who became chairman of the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company and Jean Paterson Shanks.
Elsie Mackay's father was serving as President of the Bengal Chamber of Commerce, as a member of the Legislative Council of the Viceroy of India, and as a member of the Council of the Secretary of State for India.
Elsie Mackay was reportedly disinherited by her family after eloping with actor Dennis Wyndham to be married on 23 May 1917.
Elsie Mackay appeared on the stage and screen as Poppy Wyndham from 1919 to 1921.
Elsie Mackay was regarded as a contemporary role model amongst women, with dark looks, graceful manner, and a habitually well-dressed and bejewelled appearance.
Elsie Mackay was noted for driving her Rolls-Royce at great speed and was a familiar sight in her Avro biplane in the skies over South Ayrshire and Wigtownshire.
Elsie Mackay even participated in an "outside loop", the most dangerous of all stunts in air, with Capt.
Elsie Mackay was one of the first women in Britain to gain her Royal Aero Club pilot's licence and was later elected to the advisory committee of pilots to the British Empire Air League.
In early March 1928, the Daily Express discovered that Captain Hinchliffe and Elsie Mackay were preparing for a transatlantic attempt by carrying out test flights at RAF Cranwell and were staying at the George Hotel in Leadenham near Grantham.
The story was silenced by Elsie Mackay's threatened legal action as she intended to depart in secret while her father was in Egypt, having promised her family she would not make the attempt.
Elsie Mackay is commemorated by a stained glass window in the chancel of Glenapp Church in the parish of Ballantrae, Ayrshire.