Colonel Colonel (abbreviated as Col., Col or COL) is a senior military officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations. In the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, a colonel was typically in charge of ...

Sir George McCrae (28 August 1860 – 27 December 1928) was a Scottish textile merchant and Liberal Party politician. In Scotland he is best remembered for the creation of McCrae's Battalion, also known as the Second Edinburgh Pals Battalion and (officially) the 16th Battalion Royal Scots.

Early life

Born in poor circumstances in

Aberdeen Aberdeen (; sco, Aiberdeen ; gd, Obar Dheathain ; la, Aberdonia) is a city in North East Scotland, and is the third most populous city in the country. Aberdeen is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas (as Aberdeen City), and ...

, the illegitimate son of a housemaid, George McCrae was educated at the

Lancasterian School The Monitorial System, also known as Madras System or Lancasterian System, was an education method that took hold during the early 19th century, because of Spanish, French, and English colonial education that was imposed into the areas of expansion. ...

, Edinburgh, having been raised by his maternal uncle. He never knew the identity of his father.

Career

McCrae made his mark in the textile trade. He was described variously as a draper or a merchant hosier and mercer.Cameron Hazlehurst & Christine Woodland (eds.),''A Liberal Chronicle: Journals and Papers of J A Pease, 1908–1910''; The Historians Press, 1994, p. 242. In 1909, after a successful career as MP for Edinburgh East, he resigned from the House of Commons to take up a position in Scottish government service, accepting the appointment of Vice-President of the Scottish Local Government Board.Edmund Burke, ''The Annual Register of World Events: A Review of the Year''; Longmans, Green, 1910. From 1919 to 1922 he served as Chairman of the Scottish Board of Health. He was

knighted A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the Christian denomination, church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood ...

in 1908.

First World War service

McCrae was a former officer in the

Volunteer Force The Volunteer Force was a citizen army of part-time rifle, artillery and engineer corps, created as a popular movement throughout the British Empire in 1859. Originally highly autonomous, the units of volunteers became increasingly integrated ...

, having been commanding officer of the 4th Volunteer Battalion, Royal Scots. In November 1914, during the enthusiasm for

Kitchener's Army The New Army, often referred to as Kitchener's Army or, disparagingly, as Kitchener's Mob, was an (initially) all-volunteer portion of the British Army formed in the United Kingdom from 1914 onwards following the outbreak of hostilities in the Fi ...

, he raised the 16th Battalion the Royal Scots. Among the first recruits were 16 members of the Hearts playing squad & staff. At the time Hearts were top of the Scottish League. The battalion was raised in Edinburgh and McCrae commanded it on the

Western Front Western Front or West Front may refer to: Military frontiers *Western Front (World War I), a military frontier to the west of Germany *Western Front (World War II), a military frontier to the west of Germany *Western Front (Russian Empire), a majo ...

. After what was seen as the battalion's failure in action in August 1916, however, the divisional commander removed McCrae from command and assigned him to a reserve unit. He was judged to be popular with his men and personally brave but he was thought to have deficiencies as a leader, probably an unwillingness to incur casualties. Despite this judgment of their chief, McCrae's Own, as the battalion was known, had managed to penetrate deeper into the enemy line than any other regiment during the 'big push' of July 1916. A memorial

cairn A cairn is a man-made pile (or stack) of stones raised for a purpose, usually as a marker or as a burial mound. The word ''cairn'' comes from the gd, càrn (plural ). Cairns have been and are used for a broad variety of purposes. In prehis ...

, the

McCrae's Battalion Great War Memorial McCrae's Battalion Great War Memorial is a World War I memorial cairn located in the village of Contalmaison, France. Designed by the historian, Jack Alexander, it was unveiled in 2004 after being first proposed by survivors of the battalion in 19 ...

was erected in the French village of

Contalmaison Contalmaison () is a commune in the Somme department in Hauts-de-France in northern France. Geography Contalmaison is situated on the D147 and D20 crossroads, some northeast of Amiens. History As with many towns in this part of France, Contal ...

, a commune in the

Somme __NOTOC__ Somme or The Somme may refer to: Places *Somme (department), a department of France *Somme, Queensland, Australia *Canal de la Somme, a canal in France *Somme (river), a river in France Arts, entertainment, and media * ''Somme'' (book), a ...

département In the administrative divisions of France, the department (french: département, ) is one of the three levels of government under the national level ("territorial collectivity, territorial collectivities"), between the regions of France, admin ...

where many of its soldiers fell in 1916. McCrae ended the war with the rank of Colonel and was awarded the DSO.

Politics

Local politics

McCrae became a member of

Edinburgh Town Council The politics of Edinburgh are expressed in the deliberations and decisions of the City of Edinburgh Council, in elections to the council, the Scottish Parliament and the UK Parliament. Also, as Scotland's capital city, Edinburgh is host to th ...

in 1889. He was a City Treasurer and Chairman of the Finance Committee from 1891 to 1899 and also served as a

Justice of the Peace A justice of the peace (JP) is a judicial officer of a lower or ''puisne'' court, elected or appointed by means of a commission ( letters patent) to keep the peace. In past centuries the term commissioner of the peace was often used with the sa ...

in Edinburgh.

Edinburgh East by-election 1899

In 1899, Robert Wallace, the sitting Liberal MP for Edinburgh East, died causing a Parliamentary

by-election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, a bye-election in Ireland, a bypoll in India, or a Zimni election (Urdu: ضمنی انتخاب, supplementary election) in Pakistan, is an election used to f ...

. McCrae was selected as Liberal candidate and held the seat over his Liberal Unionist challenger with a majority of 1,980 votes.

1900–1906

McCrae fought Edinburgh East again in

1900 As of March 1 ( O.S. February 17), when the Julian calendar acknowledged a leap day and the Gregorian calendar did not, the Julian calendar fell one day further behind, bringing the difference to 13 days until February 28 ( O.S. February 15), 2 ...

, holding the seat with a majority of 1,291 and he successfully defended the constituency again at the

1906 general election The following elections occurred in the year 1906. Asia * 1906 Persian legislative election Europe * 1906 Belgian general election * 1906 Croatian parliamentary election * Denmark ** 1906 Danish Folketing election ** 1906 Danish Landsting ele ...

, this time increasing his majority to 4,174. In 1909 he resigned from the House of Commons to take up a position in Scottish government service, accepting the appointment of Vice-President of the Scottish Local Government Board.

1917–1922

McCrae sought a return to politics as a supporter of the Coalition Government of Lloyd George. In 1917, the Chief Liberal

Whip A whip is a tool or weapon designed to strike humans or other animals to exert control through pain compliance or fear of pain. They can also be used without inflicting pain, for audiovisual cues, such as in equestrianism. They are generally e ...

of the

Coalition government A coalition government is a form of government in which political parties cooperate to form a government. The usual reason for such an arrangement is that no single party has achieved an absolute majority after an election, an atypical outcome in ...

, Neil Primrose was standing down from parliament from his seat in England. If a seat could be found for McCrae in Scotland, then it was likely the position of Chief Whip would be offered to him. A vacancy occurred in Edinburgh South but on 19 April 1917, the executive committee of South Edinburgh Liberals, who remained loyal to

H. H. Asquith Herbert Henry Asquith, 1st Earl of Oxford and Asquith, (12 September 1852 – 15 February 1928), generally known as H. H. Asquith, was a British statesman and Liberal Party politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom f ...

, selected Sir Edward Parrott, the chairman of their Association and of the Edinburgh United Liberal Committee, as their candidate. Although McCrae remained a supporter of Lloyd George, he was unable to secure a seat for the 1918 General Election in which he could be an endorsed candidate of the Coalition Government. Later, he fought the 1922 general election as a

Lloyd George David Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor, (17 January 1863 – 26 March 1945) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1916 to 1922. He was a Liberal Party (United Kingdom), Liberal Party politician from Wales, known for lea ...

National Liberal at Edinburgh Central. In a straight fight with

Labour Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

he trailed sitting MP, William Graham by 3,505 votes.

1923–1924

Following Liberal re-union between the supporters of Asquith and Lloyd George, for the 1923 general election McCrae switched his attention to the Stirling and Falkirk Burghs. Standing as a Liberal, McCrae defeated the sitting Labour MP, Hugh Murnin by the narrow margin of 156 votes (which was less than 1% of the total poll). In

1924 Events January * January 12 – Gopinath Saha shoots Ernest Day, whom he has mistaken for Sir Charles Tegart, the police commissioner of Calcutta, and is arrested soon after. * January 20– 30 – Kuomintang in China hol ...

he was unable to hold to his gain and Murnin won back the seat with a majority of 1,924 votes.

Death

In later life he lived at 61 Grange Loan, in the southern Edinburgh suburbs. The house was demolished to build flats in the 1990s. McCrae died on 27 December 1928, aged 68 years. He is buried in Grange Cemetery in southern

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

. The grave lies on the eastern path close to the main entrance.

Family

In 1890 he married Eliza Cameron Russell (d. 1913).National Liberal Federation, Liberal Central Association (Great Britain), ''The Liberal Year Book for 1909''; Harvester Press, 1909, p. 62. His eldest son, Captain George McCrae, joined the Royal Scots but not in his father's battalion. He died at Gallipoli on 28 June 1915. His daughter Fiona McCrae MBE (1905–1948) was a Senior Commander. His son Major William Russell McCrae won the

Military Cross The Military Cross (MC) is the third-level (second-level pre-1993) military decoration awarded to officers and (since 1993) other ranks of the British Armed Forces, and formerly awarded to officers of other Commonwealth countries. The MC i ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:McCrae, George 1860 births 1928 deaths UK MPs 1895–1900 UK MPs 1900–1906 UK MPs 1906–1910 UK MPs 1923–1924 British Army personnel of World War I Companions of the Distinguished Service Order Councillors in Edinburgh Deputy Lieutenants of Edinburgh Knights Bachelor McCrae's Battalion Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Edinburgh constituencies Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Stirling constituencies National Liberal Party (UK, 1922) politicians Politicians from Aberdeen Politicians from Edinburgh Royal Scots officers Scottish Liberal Party councillors Scottish Liberal Party MPs Military personnel from Aberdeen Politicians awarded knighthoods