Distinguished Guyanese Attorney, Senior Counsel Rex McKay was today eulogized as a legal giant and a man of impeccable character, who will forever be remembered as one of the greatest lawyers that Guyana has ever produced.
McKay passed away yesterday morning and was laid to rest today.
Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Senior Counsel Anil Nandlall was among officials who paid tribute to the late Senior Counsel at his Home Going Ceremony, which was held at the Central Islamic Organisation on Woolford Avenue with prayers at the Queenstown Masjid.
The Attorney General said both in physical stature and learning, Mr. McKay was a legal colossus, who used both his imposing physical frame and his vast knowledge of the law to his strategic advantage.
He said the Senior Counsel acquitted himself with distinction, initially in Criminal Law, and then Civil Law when Constitutional and Public Law began to assume prominence in the early 1980s and onwards.
He was a fierce competitor, who was always prepared, the Attorney General added.
“His desire to win, his perseverance, his tenacity were all attributes that made him the legal colossus,” the Attorney General said.
Minister Nandlall said Mr McKay’s distinguished legal career spanned across the Caribbean. The Senior Counsel had served as a Judge in the Eastern Caribbean Court that heard the Maurice Bishop assassination case.
“Mr McKay not only distinguished himself in the legal profession in Guyana but did so in the Caribbean as well. He represented governments in Antigua and in St Lucia in various elections petitions. He sat in the famous trial for Maurice Bishop assassination as a member of the Court of Appeal. Mr McKay is perhaps the last bastion in that golden era,” the Attorney General said.
Mr McKay’s career spanned six decades.
He was admitted to practice law in British Guiana in 1956, having completed his legal education at the University of London and Lincoln’s Inn where he graduated as a Barrister-at-Law.
Mr Mckay was also remembered as a businessman, and owner of the WRHM TV.
Veteran Journalist and owner of Capital News, Enrico Woolford said Mr McKay was an exceptional human being not just as an attorney but also as an entrepreneur.
“He saw the significance of information in a small society as Guyana and he made sure that he provided over the years, television from the mid-80s, when one other person was asking persons to pay to watch television, he decided to provide that over the air television free and as a result of that WRHM became very popular, and our newscast, my newscast, Capitol News started on WRHM and several other news entities,” Mr Woolford said.
Senior Counsel Rex McKay was 95-years-old.
He was the recipient of two national awards, the Order of Roraima and the Cacique Crown of Honour.
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