George McCrae (politician)

Colonel Sir George McCrae DSO MP (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.

Born poor circumstances, in Aberdeen, the illegitimate son of a housemaid, George McCrae was educated at the Lancasterian School, Edinburgh, having been raised by his maternal uncle. He never knew the identity of his father.

McCrae made his mark in the textile trade. He was described variously as a draper or a merchant hosier and mercer 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. From 1919-1922 he served as Chairman of the Scottish Board of Health. He was knighted in 1908.

McCrae was a volunteer soldier. In November 1914, before the introduction of conscription, he raised the 16th Battalion the Royal Scots. Among the first recruits were 13 members of the Heart of Midlothian playing squad. At the time Hearts were top of the Scottish League. The battalion was raised in Edinburgh and McCrae commanded it on the Western Front. 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 dedicated to McCrae’s Battalion was erected in the French village of Contalmaison, a commune in the Somme département where so many of its soldiers fell in 1916.

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