Who shot George William Mackay

It has remained a mystery as to who shot Dr George William Mackay (偕叡廉, 1882-1963), son of Rev George Leslie Mackay (1844-1901) and Mrs Chhang-Mia Tiu Mackay (  -1925), and why.

Isabel Minnie Mackay (1917-2012), born and raised in Tamsui, educated in Japan and Canada, was the 4th of the 5 children of George William Mackay and Jean Ross Mackay (1887-1969). She, known affectionately to her students as "馬偕小姐Miss Mackay", was then a Consultant to NTU Hospital Nursing School in Taipei and who was spending a rare day off with her parents in Tamsui. They had chit-chatted happily late into the evening before getting ready for bed. Not long after Miss Mackay returned to her bedroom, however, she heard her mother screaming in alarm, then the sound of gun fire, followed by her father's yelling, "I am hit!" Instinctively, Miss Mackay rushed to her parents' aid, only to encounter a soldier standing in the hallway leading to her parents' bedroom. This man fired a shot that had penetrated Miss Mackay's right leg. She hastily retreated to the bedroom, escaped through a window, and called out in Taiwanese, "救人Help! 救人Help!" The neighbors and the policemen quickly gathered and scared off the two gunmen. Ignoring her own injuries, Miss Mackay administered first aid to her father, stopped bleeding from a gaping gunshot wound in the abdomen. Her mother was also shot in the side of the abdomen; luckily, the bullet did not strike any vital organs. Together, they were rushed to the ER of NTU Hospital where Dr 高天成, the Head of the Hospital, personally operated on Dr Mackay. Because the bullet was lodged too close to the spine, it was decided not to risk paralysis and to leave the bullet alone. The damages were repaired quickly.

Such a fateful day - Miss Mackay's visit to her hometown Tamsui actually had saved her parents' lives.

No one knew why the Mackays were targeted. The official version alleged that it was an armed robbery committed by two soldiers. To the Mackays, this made no sense, since no one in the family had resisted. The actual use of deadly force would appear unusual if a simple robbery as well, when in fact nothing was taken from the house at all.

The understanding of Tamsui-lang was that the weapons and bullets used in the home invasion were issued only to military officers, not to common foot soldiers. Because the incident had occurred one day after the UK recognized, diplomatically, Communist China (Jan 6, 1950), the theory was that the Mackays were mistaken as being British and two KMT army officers had come to exact "revenge".

The truth? To this day, no one really knows.