Wing Commander James Frederick (Fred) McKay

James Frederick (Fred) McKay was born in Mackay, Queensland in 1907, the third of nine children. He attended Thornburgh College in Charters Tower as a boarder. In 1933, he graduated with a Bachelor of Divinity degree from Emmanuel College, University of Queensland. McKay was the Presbyterian minister at Southport in Queensland when he met Reverend John Flynn and decided to join the Australian Inland Mission. He worked in western Queensland as a patrol padre from 1935-1941, and collaborated with Flynn in pioneering the Flying Doctor Service. In 1938, he married Margaret (Meg) McKay, a nursing sister who shared his mission work with the A.I.M.

During the Second World War he was appointed as the R.A.A.F. Presbyterian chaplain on Laverton Base, Victoria, and served in the Middle East and Italy. McKay succeeded Flynn as superintendent of the A.I.M. in 1951 and continued to expand the A.I.M.'s medical and educational services among outback people for the next 23 years. He became moderator-general of the Presbyterian Church of Australia in 1970-1973, and was involved in the establishment of the Uniting Church. In 1998, he was created a Companion of the Order of Australia (AC). McKay died in Sydney in 2000.