Stuart Macrae (inventor)

Robert Stuart Macrae
Military career
Allegiance	United Kingdom
Service/branch	British Army
Years of service	1939–1955
Rank	Colonel
Battles/wars	Second World War
Signature

Colonel Robert Stuart Macrae TD was an inventor best known for his work at MD1 during the Second World War, his best known invention being the sticky bomb.

Macrae was the author of Winston Churchill's Toyshop, a memoir detailing his experiences at MD1.

Macrae had been a trainee engineer and late in the First World War worked on a device for dropping grenades as an early form of cluster bomb. The war ended before the device was used or he received any commission for his work.

Macrae was an editor of Armchair Science magazine during the period leading up to the Second World War. He was approached by Millis Jefferis who was after strong magnets for a secret explosive project. Already security cleared from his previous work, Macrae was able to join in the project.

Macrae was called up as a second lieutenant on the Special List of the Territorial Army on 1 September 1939. with the effect that he had to give up editing Armchair Science and a gardening magazine at the same publisher.

One of Macrae's first weapons inventions was a limpet mine. The mine was developed by Macrae and Cecil Vandepeer Clarke in 1939 using improvised development techniques.

Macrae was the administrator of MD1, but also able to continue to be involved in developing weapons and devices.

By the end of the war he was a war substantive lieutenant colonel. His promotion to full colonel, as a result of MD1 being upgraded to a Grade A Establishment, was halted by the end of the war. He remained in the TA after the war, transferring to the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (REME) as a substantive major on 9 October 1947 (with seniority from 6 October 1942).

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