He was born in
Kirriemuir,
Forfarshire to Janet Thomson, an unmarried girl. Janet declined to marry Alexander's father, John Whyte, who thereafter went to America. She did however give Alexander his father's surname. His mother joined the Free Church of Scotland at the
Disruption of 1843. In 1848 he began an apprenticeship as a
cobbler. In 1854 he took on a role as schoolteacher at Padanaram in
Forfar and the following year moved to teach in
Airlie. In Airlie the local minister taught him Latin and Greek, enabling him to apply for university He studied divinity at the
University of Aberdeen and then at
New College, Edinburgh graduating in 1866. This was in part funded by his estranged father. His half-sister, Elizabeth Whyte, came to join him from America to help him keep house. There she met his colleague, Rev Thomas Macadam, whom she married. Whyte lived in a huge townhouse 7
Charlotte Square, in
Edinburgh's First New Town. The house is now owned by the
National Trust for Scotland and open to the public as
The Georgian House, Edinburgh. He retired from the ministry of Free St George's in 1916, and from his position as principal of New College in 1918. He lived in
Buckinghamshire from around 1915 and died there. However he was returned to Edinburgh for burial. ==Family==