High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Lieutenant General Sir James Whiteside McCay KCMG, KBE, CB, VD (21 December 1864 – 1 October 1930) was an Australian general and politician. A graduate of the University of Melbourne, where he earned Master of Arts and Master of Laws degrees, he established a successful legal practice, McCay Thwaites. He was a member of the Victorian Parliament from 1895 to 1899, where he was a champion of women`s suffrage and federation. He lost his seat in 1899 but became a member of the first Australian Federal Parliament in 1901. He was Minister for Defence from 1904 to 1905, during which he implemented long-lasting reforms, including the creation of the Military Board.