page_title: Alfred Edwin McKay
section_title: Involvement in the First World War
hierarchical_section_title: Alfred Edwin McKay / Involvement in the First World War
caption_attribution_description: English: Photograph of Alfred Edwin McKay, Canadian fighter ace. Taken in 1917 by a friend. Photograph is now available to the public at the London Regional Archives in London, Ontario.
context_page_description: Captain Alfred Edwin "Eddie" McKay MC was a Canadian flying ace who flew with the Royal Flying Corps during the First World War.
context_section_description: Around March 1916, McKay completed his training at the Wright Aviation School in Augusta, Georgia, and shipped off to Europe as a member of the Royal Flying Corps.  An editorial that appeared in The Western University Gazette in the same month, described Eddie was as a "careful" flyer who was one of the best pilots ever produced at Wright.  He was assigned to 24 Squadron where he flew an Airco D.H.2 and recorded four victories between 20 July 1916 and 25 January 1917.  For his efforts, McKay was promoted to Captain and transferred to train new pilots.  Later that year, he cited boredom when he requested to be moved back into a combat role.  Subsequently, McKay was reassigned to 23 Squadron flying the French made Spad S. VII.  He earned his final six victories (bringing his total to ten) within a one-month period stretching from 19 November 1917 to 18 December 1917. During a 26 October dogfight, McKay was pursued by German ace Manfred von Richthofen when they disrupted Oswald Boelcke and Erwin Bohme's attack on Alfred Gerald Knight. McKay and Knight confirmed that Boelcke collided with Bohme during the assault. On 28 December 1917, McKay was shot down over Belgium. Jasta 2's Leutnant Carl Menckhoff was credited with the victory, although a German 2-seater also claimed a SPAD at this time and place.  In Above the Trenches, Christopher Shores suggests that McKay became a prisoner of war after being shot down, but Veteran Affairs Canada lists the 28th as the day he was killed in action.
caption: McKay in Royal Flying Corps uniform, December 1917
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