For the American actress Elsie Mackay, see Elsie Mackay (actress)

Elsie Mackay (circa 1893– circa 13 March 1928) was a British actress, interior decorator and pioneering aviator who died attempting to cross the Atlantic Ocean with Walter G. R. Hinchliffe in a single engined Stinson Detroiter. Her name as an actress was Poppy Wyndham.

Biography

She was born in 1893 in Simla, 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. Her 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.

She was reportedly disinherited by her family after eloping with actor Dennis Wyndham to be married on 23 May 1917. She appeared on the stage and screen as Poppy Wyndham from 1919 through 1921. This marriage was annulled in 1922.