[1] Lecky was born on 31 December 1904, the twelfth of 13 children, and raised on a small farm in Swift River, in the Blue Mountains region in Portland Parish in the island of Jamaica.
This inspired Lecky to research solutions to provide and improve the diet of his community and neighbours by developing the local breed of cattle for milk and beef production.
[1][3] Lecky wrote in his autobiography, Cattle and I, that as someone with black blood, he struggled to gain acceptance in scientific circles in the Colony of Jamaica, where key positions were given to white people, such as Cousins.
It was only when the British West Indian labour unrest of 1934-1939 took place, and the subsequent nationalist movement took hold in the 1940s, that he was finally appointed to a position of authority, that of breeding cattle at Hope Farm.
[4] In 1925, after graduating, Lecky worked for the government at Hope, where he assessed the new breeds of cattle being introduced to Jamaica and tested their reaction to local conditions.
He believed that all small farmers should have cattle because besides producing milk, every year a young animal could be sold to help pay for school fees.