McKAY, Eric Barclay (1850-1922), active in Victoria, B.C. where he was a member of the staff of Public Works Dept. of the provincial government. Born in Gifford, East Lothian, Scotland on 25 May 1850, he received his early training as an engineer with the Wigan Coal & Iron Company. He was later associated with the Diamond Drill Boring Co. in various parts of England, and in connection with that company, he went to Nanaimo, B.C. in 1875 and worked there for eight years. He later took up residence in Victoria, B.C. and it was there that he may have received some of his architectural training. By 1890 he had joined the Provincial Dept. of Lands and Works as a draftsman. McKay had a remarkable skill as a delineator and designer, and some of his exquisite watercolour drawings for designs of provincial government buildings have survived, and now form part of the collection of the British Columbia Public Archives in Victoria.
McKay was later promoted to the position of Surveyor-General for B.C., in December 1905, and resigned from this post in May 1911 (biog. Daily Colonist [Victoria], 9 May 1911, 3). He laid out the townsite of Alderlea Village (later known as Duncan, B.C.), and designed some of the first cottages on the site. McKay returned to Scotland in May 1920 and died at Edinburgh on 26 February 1922 (obit. The Scotsman [Edinburgh], 27 Feb. 1922; obit. Victoria Daily Times, 28 Feb. 1922, 1 & 4; Daily Colonist [Victoria], 1 March 1922, 4 & 5)
REVELSTOKE, B.C., public school, c. 1890 (dwgs. at BCPA, Victoria, Sheet 15 T1)
ASHCROFT & COMOX, B.C., Court House, 1891 (dwgs. at BCPA, Victoria)
CLINTON, B.C., residence for the Government Agent, 1892 (dwgs. at BCPA, Victoria)
MOUNT TOLMIE, B.C., major addition to the School House, 1892 (dwgs. at BCPA, Victoria)
KAMLOOPS, B.C., vault building for the Registry Office, 1893 (dwgs. at BCPA, Victoria)