VETERAN SOLDIER

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 140, 30 June 1937, Page 4

VETERAN SOLDIER

Passing of Mr. M. McRae SERVICE IN TWO WARS A veteran soldier with a serviee record in both the South African War and the Great War, Mr. Murdoeh McRae, died at the Cook Hospital, Gisborne, yesterday morning, at the age of 71 yearg. He had been a patfeut in hospital for the past month and had suffered considerably ever gince the last war from illness contraeted while on active serviee, The late Mr. McRae was born in Victoria, being one of seven brothera. who served in the South African and the Great wars. He served with th'e Scottish Horse in South Afriea. On one of the late Sir Ernest Shackleton's expeditions to the Antaretic Mr. McRae was a steward on the Nimrod, Mr. McRae first eame to New Zealand |n 1907 and just before the Great War he was resident in Hastings, where he was a prominent member oi the Legion of Frontiersmen. Upon the outbreak of hostilHies in 1914 Mr. McRae journeyed to England and joined up with the Legion q£ Frontiersmen in the Homeland. Whqn on the point of departing for France, the Frontiersmen were transferred to the 25th serviee battalion of the Royal Fusiliers, which was the first unit of Kitchener 's Araiy to be'used overseas. The 25th battalion of which the Frontiersmen, under Coionel Driseoll, formed the larger seetion, was dispatched to German West Afriea in May, 1915. Disease caused the deaths of most of the men, and of the 1170 in the battalion there remajned only 43 fit for serviee by December, 1916, Mr. McRae, being one of those affieeted, had suffered from the complaint ever since., Towards the end of the war he returned to New Zealand tb find employment on stations on the East Coast, but residing enainly in the Poverty Bay district. For two years before 1934 fie was custodian of the Matakaoa County Hospital, after that institution had been closed. He was also custodian of St. Francis' House, Gisborne, during the last 18 months of the institution 's existence. The late Mr. McRae was a man of indqpeadent wUl and was highly respectjed by his fefiow ex-gervicemen, from whose ranks he will be greatly missed. He was a keen member of the Returned Soldiers' Association and also belonged to the Legion of Frontiersmen and the South African War Veterans' Association in Gisborne. He leaves no relatives in New Zealand, but has several brothers residing ' in Australia,