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David held a position with the Borneo Company Ltd. in London, a company which had as director Robert Henderson, of R & J Henderson of Glasgow, merchants .  John , the J in R & J Henderson of Glasgow, was  married to Mary Macfie, daughter of John Macfie of Leith. John Macfie was brother to David's great grand mother, making David and John of R & J Henderson 1st cousins 2 times removed by marriage. Back then in most cases family relationships were utilized  very efficiently proving positions for the up and coming  young men oft he following generation so we could assume David  had been fortunate  in obtaining his position.

David attended  along with his brothers

David was sent to Siam in 18    as an assistant  manager for the teak wood harvesting operations :

( Notes written by   R W Woods.)

Macfie, David Flemming ( B C L ( British)

D F Macfie was another of Chiang Mai's eminent men. Though Scottish, his family had established themselves in  Manchester in the cotton business ( has to be verified). Macfie was educated at  Charterhouse, where he represented the school in the public school's racquet championship at Queens and also at  football, which later he played for the Cortinthians. He was not attracted to the family business and in January 1893 arrived in Chiang Mai as a forest assistant under Louis Leonowens, who was then employed by BCL to acquire teak leases from the Chao Luang. Leonowen's ploy was to loose money gambling with the Chao and Macfie was expected to attend these sessions, but as he lived on the opposite side of the river and had no boat he was sometimes compelled to swim across, with dry clothes waiting for him on the other bank. He also had the junior's privilege of gambling with his own money.

Leonowens however was before long found wanting by BCL and resigned. After  a probationary period Macfie was appointed Forest Manager, which he remained until his retirement in 1927. During this time he controlled the BCL forest leases, which in the main comprised the whole of the west bank of the Mae Ping, from Chiang Mai to Tak, with one or two others to the north and in Lampang.  One area he obtained was a gift from King Prajadhipok, Rama VII, who visited Chiang Mai ( the first King ever to do so) ( almost like his great grand uncle John of Leith) in 1927 to open the railway station , which marked the final completion  of the Bangkok-Chiang Mai  line. A calf born shortly before, in the BCL herd was found to be a scared White Elepant, which  was presented to his Majesty ceremoniously. The Mae Yuak forest was subsequently Royaly gifted in appreciation. Macfie himself  was appointed to the Order of the White Elephant.

Macfie was a founding member of the Chiengmai Cymkhana Club in 1898, where he  was active in sports for many years, notably polo and tennis, while his home leaves were occupied with sailing. His hobbies  included cartography in which he skilled, though unfortunately much of this was lost. One work of his which does survive is the " Chiang Mai Record"  in which he lists year by year the names and movements of all European residents and visitors : this extends from 1884 to 1919 when he discontinued it and is a virtual source of information.

In 1927 he retired to a house he had built for himself and his family at the foot of the Chiang Mail hill, and lived there until he was interned  in Bankok from 1941-1945. The internment camp was controlled by the  Thais and the  Japanese and therefore less severe than some , but severe enough for a man of 70 and he died in Chaing Mai four months after his release.

Macfie Mrs Kammao

Born 1882, died 13 November 1968  aged  86

Though born Thai, the acquired British nationally automatically on her marriage to D F Macfie, according to the British marriage laws of that time. As a girl she had been handmaiden to one of the princesses of Chiang Mai  and accompanined her to Bankok when the princess joined the court of King Chulalongkorn, returning to Chiang Mai to marry. \She became a Cristian and was active in church work in her neighbourhood, where she built several churches.

Macfie Angus Flemming    born August 1910, died July 1989 aged 79 of cancer.

He was born in Chiang Mai, the fourth and youngest child of D F Macfie and Nag Kammao and spent his infancy in Chiang Mai. About 1916 he was sent to Hong Kong, along with two of his  three sisters, as boarders at Darsen School on Kowloon, and in 1919 the same group were sent under command of two governesses to Jeanne d'Arc School, in San Remo Italy to prepare for schooling in England. he then spent 1920- 1924 at Hilcrest Preparatory School at Swanage Dorset, passing into the Scottish School Genalmond where he remained until 1930. It is said by his school master there , that his main interest appeared to be sports and he was the school's rugby full back for two years, besides winning a number of athletic prizes.

From 1930-1934 he studied at Camborne School of Mines, in Cornwall where he qualified as a mining surveyor. While at Cambornes he excelled as a ruby footballer, playing regularly for the school, Camborne Club and once for Cornwall County.

From 1934-39 he was employed in Nigeria by the  Yalwah Obosse Gold Mining Co, but on the outbreak of war returned to England and joined up. He spent the next six years in the army, fininishing up in Europe where he had landed tow days after the 1944 invasion as a Sergent in the  9th Survey Regiment Royal Artillery . After demobilization he returned to Chiang Mai where his father had recently died in 1946 to rejoin his mother, who he had not seen for thirty years. Her first reaction was to give me a bath, aged 36 !. He had by this time became in effect an Englishman visitor and never really acquired enough Thai to communicate with her.  He found no suitable employment in Thailand and in 1949 went of to Malaya to join a British firm , Sir Bruce White and Partners as a mine's surveyor. About 1960, he decided to go on his own and settled at Ipoh as a partner of a survey firm called Macfie & Wilson, until his final retirement in 1980 when he returned to Chiang Mai close to his sister Violet.

During the whole of his twenty years in at Ipoh, he lived in one small room at the Ipoh Club and at no time showed any special interest in domestic comfort. On various visits to Chiang Mai , he was usually presented by his relations with eligible girls ( whom he thoroughly enjoyed) but always seemed to escape quite honourably from matrimony. He was curiously indifferent to money, though neither neither spendthrift nor a lender and as generous as the next man. he had inherited  ( from his father) gift of rhymes , which he composed as family bard ( comic) for all special occasion and was also a remarkable good writer of letters.

What impressed people the most was his imperturbability in crises, real or imaginary and his totally unmalicious attitude to the world her lived in, a man empty of guile, but full of friendliness and good sense.

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The Borneo Company ( link)

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More accumulated notes :

David married a hand maiden of the Princes of Siam, his children were all born there, the three daughters are buried along with their parents in the  Chiang Mai Foreign cemetry, Thailand.

Extract from book written by W.S. Bristowe 1976 :  Louis and the King of  Siam :

" Macfie was 43 before he was officially married in 1913 and was very very hurt that his freinds did not call on his Lao wife or when Bristowe mentioned about Mr W W Wood in his sources and notes, Like other men of his time he was class-conscious where Europeans were concerned, but a throughly decent fellow. D F Macfie was a manager of Borneo Co. Ltd in Chian Mai since 1899.

His wife was Kam Mao. The couple had together three children all born before they were officially married. He died in Chiang Mai in 1945"

David was a founding member of the Chiang Mai Gymkhana Club  1898

The Chiang Mai Record was kpet by D F Macfie from 1884  to 1919 noting the names and movements of Foreign residents and visitors in the north of Siam.

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SQUASH

Just over a century ago a group of expatriates, mainly British and living in the North of  Siam  (Thailand) spent many of their leisure hours playing Squash. Most were in the then highly lucrative timber trade and thus it is not surprising that they built their courts from  Teak

On of these happy band of Squash players was D F Macfie  who worked for the Borneo Company and appears in Squash records from the middle 1890's to the middle 1920's. He played all his Squash during this period on Teak courts whilst he was in Northern Thailand ( Siam) He was one of the 14 founder members of the  Chiengmai Gymkhana Club ( Louis Leonowens, whose wife Anna was the famous " The King and I" Anna, was another) which started in 1898. The Club still exists and although Polo is no longer played they still play Squash. They have a thriving Squash section playing on two modern courts which were built in 1979 and 1985. When the second court was completed the Teak court was dismantled and we believe put in storage.

There were a number of such courts but all but one have disappeared or have been converted to other use. Once still remains in Chiengmai, in the compound of the old Bornoe Company, but this is now a home. Traces of the wall sidelines were still visible when last inspected.

Mr Macfie left and out standing legacy. This was the " Chiengmai Cup " for doubles squash, which he presented to the Royal Bankok Sports Club in 1910. The competition for this cup has been played almost continuously sine 1910 to this date. The only times it was not played were the war years and a couple of " administrative slippages". We believe the competition hold the record for the longest still played.

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Squash  a second version

Just over a century ago a group of expatriates, mainly British and living in the North of  Siam  (Thailand) spent many of their leisure hours playing Squash. Most were in the then highly lucrative timber trade and thus it is not surprising that they built their courts from  Teak

 In the early days of the Asylum , the support was entirey local, coming from foreign and Siamese friends in Chiengmai and vicinity. From before the days of the Asylum, when we were giving unorganized aid to the wandering lepers, until the present time   Mr. D F Macfie has solicited funds for the lepers each year during a period of more than a quarter of a century.

Foreign Cemetray

photos

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Violet Macfie 1905-1992

Married Siam

Mr Posayawat 18xx-xxxx

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Violet is buried in the Foreign Cemetery in Chiang Mai along side her parents

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Catherine Mary McKean 19xx-xxxx

Married Los Angeles,Ca

William Royer 19xx-xxxx

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Kate Royer 19xx-xxxx

Mollie Royer 19xx-xxxx