Clifford Alexander McCrae (1894-1966)

Farmer, municipal official.

Born at Gladstone, Manitoba on 15 November 1894, he was educated there and in Portage la Prairie, he intended to study medicine but, at the onset of World War One, enlisted and went overseas with the 61^st Battalion in 1916. He transferred overseas to the 44^th Royal Air Force and became a flight lieutenant. After the war, he taught school for a short time then bought a farm in the Rural Municipality of Westbourne through the Soldier Settlement Board.

He was married in 1923 to Corinne Singleton, with whom he had four sons and two daughters. He was an avid athlete, playing baseball, curling, and hockey. He was a member of the 61st Battalion team which won the Allan Cup in the winter of 1915-16.

In 1945, he was elected Reeve of the Rural Municipality of Westbourne, replacing E. S. Browning. Two years later, he was elected to the Executive of the Union of Manitoba Municipalities, becoming President for a two-year term starting in November 1953. He served on the Bracken Liquor Commission and was Secretary of the Manitoba Pool Elevators Association since its organization, Chairman of the Gladstone Hospital Board, an Elder of the Gladstone United Church, a member of the Area Rural Development Association, and a member of the Senior Citizens Committee of Crescent Lodge Incorporated. He was awarded a Golden Boy Award for meritorious service to Manitoba.

He died suddenly while curling at Westbourne on 25 January 1966 and was buried in the Gladstone Cemetery.

Sources:

Attestation papers for C. A. McCrae, Library and Archives Canada.

Western Municipal News, February 1954, page 40.

Obituary, Winnipeg Free Press, 26 January 1966.

Profile revised: 4 October 2009

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