James Whiteside McCay

Lieutenant General James Whiteside McCay, KBE, KCMG (1864–1930), was the son of an Irish immigrant family and was commissioned into the Victorian Rifles in 1886. Promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel in 1900, he was elected to the Federal Parliament in March 1901. Between August 1904 and July 1905, McCay was Minister for Defence and presided over the Hutton reforms that brought about the amalgamation of Australia’s colonial forces into a single national force. In World War I, McCay served as Inspector General of the 1st Australian Imperial Force, as Commander of the 1st Infantry Brigade at Gallipoli and of the 5th Division on the Western Front. He was knighted in 1918 and retired from the Army in 1926.