Memorable Manitobans: Robert Farquhar McRae (1877-1962)

Automobile dealer.

Born at Richmond, Ontario in June 1877, son of Alexander McRae and Ann Jane Conley, brother of Alexander Conley McRae, John C. McRae, and James Russell McRae, he came to Winnipeg in 1896 with his brother John and completed his education at the Winnipeg Collegiate Institute.

He began working in the automobile business in 1903 and, in 1913, he bought the firm of McRae and Breen from his brother Alexander. It carried on as McRae and Griffith Limited in partnership with David Wesley Griffith. During the Second World War, he was a tire and car rationing officer with the War Time Prices and Trade Board, after which he was associated with Thomas Jackson and Sons Limited until retirement in 1956.

He was married twice, first on 16 December 1908 to Mary Letitia Abbott (1880-1917) at Winnipeg and they had two children: Marjorie Mae McRae (1911-1983) and Alexander Robert McRae (1917-1917). On 15 November 1922, he married Dorothy Marie McLeod Bowen (1886-1958, widow of Ernest Marion Bowen) at Winnipeg and they had three children: Fred A. McRae, Robert E. McRae, and ? McRae (wife of W. R. Scott).

He died at Winnipeg on 16 June 1962 and was buried in the Elmwood Cemetery.

Sources:

Marriage registration [Robert Faignhar McRae, Mary Letitia Abbott], Manitoba Vital Statistics.

Birth registration [Marjorie Mae McRae, Alexander Robert McRae], Manitoba Vital Statistics.

1911 Canada census, Automated Genealogy.

Marriage registration [Robert F. McRae, Dorothy Marie Bowen], Manitoba Vital Statistics.

Obituary, Winnipeg Tribune, 18 June 1962.

This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.

Page revised: 3 November 2023

Memorable Manitobans

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