VICTORIAN POET DEAD

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 124, 16 August 1927, Page 9

VICTORIAN POET DEAD

MR. G. GORDON McCRAE By Cable. — Press Association. — Copyright MELBOURNE, Monday. The death has occurred of Mr. George Gordon McCrae, who was known as “the father of Victorian poetry,” aged 94. George Gordon McCrae was born at Anchorfield, Leith, Scotland, on May 29, 1533. He early went to Australia anil was 40 years in the public service in Victoria. His published masterpiece was a poetical romance, •'The Man in the Iron Mask” (1873). Among his noted aboriginal poems were: “Balladedro,” “Mamba,” and "Kara Korok.” Mr. McCrae also wrote a history of the Seychelles, and dramas and novels of high literary merit. He was the author of “A Rosebud from the Garden of Taj” (18S8), of numerous lyrics published in Australian journals in the past 50 years, of "The Fleet and Convoy,” and other verses (1919), and of -John Rous” (1918). Mr. and Mrs. McCrae had six children, the eldest of whom, Mr. Cecil Gordon, oied in 191 S. One daughter. Miss Helen Elizabeth, was born in 1874. The second son. McHugh Raymond McCrae, is a poet and artist. Another daughter, Miss Dorothy Frances, a poetess and a writer °J B t? ri es, married the Rev. C. E. Perry, or Christchurch, New Zealand. Of the remaining children. Miss Winifred married Dr. E. Rligh. and Mr. Geoffrey McWas in action in France in