Patrick Cameron MacRae died of illness on this day in 1917.
Patrick MacRae (in some records spelt McRae) was born in Beaton’s Lane, Inverness on 12 July 1889, the son of John, a railway pointsman and his wife, Mary Ann. By 1901, Patrick lived at the Station House at Dalwhinnie with his father, now the Station Master, his mother, three sisters and one brother. He attended Dalwhinnie and Kingussie Public Schools before going to the University of Edinburgh to study medicine. He joined the Officers’ Training Company there and was also President of the Celtic Society.
On graduating in 1915, Patrick was commissioned in the Royal Army Medical Corps as a Lieutenant, joining the 50th Field Ambulance in France. He was later promoted to Captain.
In November 1915, he was transferred to the 80th Field Ambulance and headed to Salonika in December that year. During his time in France and Salonika he kept a diary, often illustrated with amusing sketches.
In early 1916, he contracted malaria. In late 1916 he was invalided home to a hospital in England, with the record of his transfer indicating ‘insane’ as the cause.
The record of Patrick’s transfer home in 1916.
In January 1917, he returned home to the Highlands where he died at Dalwhinnie on 5 March 1917. He was buried in Kingussie Parish Churchyard.
The headstone in Kingussie Parish Churchyard.
An obituary published in May 1917 indicated “it appeared that health and strength were returning and on this account the end came as a very great shock to his family and innumerable friends”.
Patrick Cameron MacRae
Died of illness 5 March 1917
Sources: History Scotland (March/April 2018); University of Edinburgh Roll of Honour: Scotlandspeople