On 22 June 1893, Sir William Mackinnon, Baronet of Balinakill and Loup, and Companion of the Indian Empire, died in his personal suite in the Burlington Hotel, just off Bond Street in London's West End. Some six days later he was buried in the little churchyard of the village of Clachan, in Kintyre in western Scotland. One mourner, Henry Morton Stanley, the African explorer, recorded the scene: ‘We walked from his house, after a simple service in the dining room… . The coffin was borne on the shoulders of relays of the Clachan villagers. In the parish grave-yard was an open grave, as for a peasant, into which the sumptuous oak coffin, was lowered … and in a short time all that was mortal of a dearly-loved man lay beneath a common mound.’ The contrast between the setting and location of William Mackinnon's death, in the fashionable heartland of Victorian Britain and its Empire, and the simplicity of the final ceremony and resting-place in the Scottish Highlands symbolises much of the contradiction and ambiguity which surrounds this nineteenth century figure. A self-made businessman – merchant, shipowner and financier – who rose from humble origins by methods that were little known to the British public. A successful entrepreneur who was touched by the shadow of the failure of at least two of the larger enterprises with which he was associated. A philanthropist who shunned publicity. A neat, dapper little figure, whose personality could appear as colourless as the pale grey suits he favoured, but whose private warmth and generosity were attested to by many who knew him. An imperialist who influenced government policy but who largely steered clear of party politics. A man whose advice and assistance were sought by members of the British aristocracy, and who consorted with the King of the Belgians, but who preferred to take his leisure privately, in the company of a small circle of friends and relatives. A figure known in business and government spheres in London, but whose ventures were usually conducted far from the metropolitan centres of power. A frequent visitor to the city who never acquired a townhouse and spent much of what time he could in his rural retreat in Scotland. In short, a person of repute who was known to, but little understood by, contemporaries and historians alike.