Researching Alexander Mckay

# Loss to Simon Byrne after 47 mins, in 5 rounds on 3 May 1827# Win over Peter Curran after 18 mins - in 1828# Win over Paul Spencer after 25 rounds on 16 October 1828 £40# Win over Paul Spencer after 30 mins in 34 rounds on 17 February 1829# Loss to Simon Byrne after 53 mins in 47 rounds on 2 June 1830

McKay died of a brain haemorrhage 30 hours after his second fight against Byrne. The news of his death was greeted in his native Scotland by rioting in which several lost their lives. He is buried in churchyard in the village of Hanslope, Buckinghamshire. The following epitaph is engraved on his tombstone.

:::"Strong and athletic was my frame:::Far from my native home I came:::And bravely fought with Simon Byrne:::Alas, but never to return.:::Stranger take warning from my fate:::Lest you should rue your case too late:::If you have ever fought before:::Determine now to fight no more"

Born in Toronto, Ontario, McKay graduated from Upper Canada College in 1942. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1946 from the University of Toronto, a Master of Arts degree in 1947 from Yale University, a A.M. degree in 1948 from Princeton University and a Ph.D in 1950 from Princeton. He started his academic career as an instructor at Princeton University from 1947 to 1949. He then taught at Wells College (1949-1950), the University of Pennsylvania (1950-1951), the University of Manitoba (1951-1952), Mount Allison University (1952-1953), Waterloo College (1953-1955), and again at the University of Manitoba (1955-1957).

He started teaching at McMaster University in 1957. He was appointed an Associate Professor in 1959, a full professor in 1961, and retired as a Professor Emeritus in 1990. He was chair of Classics from 1962–68 and from 1976-79. From 1968 to 1973, he was the founding dean of the Faculty of Humanities.

He was president of the Royal Society of Canada from 1984 to 1987.

After his retirement from McMaster University in 1990, he taught at York University in Toronto as Adjunct Professor of Humanities from 1990 until 1996.

McKay reached New Zealand in 1863 where he spent a number of years prospected for gold. A meeting with Julius von Haast saw a change of direction in which McKay, largely self-taught, undertook geological mapping and fossil collecting expeditions throughout the islands. In 1872 James Hector appointed him to the Geological Survey of New Zealand. During his geological work McKay took numerous photographs. He invented a telephoto lens and also techniques for taking images of geological collections and fossils.

McKay's greatest achievement was to free New Zealand sciences from the strictures of European-based thinking, developing new theories, of worldwide importance, on block faulting in the evolution of mountain systems. The discipline of neotectonics is largely based upon McKay's observations and theories.