MacRae, Donald Alastair
Rank: Lieutenant
Regiment: 5th Battalion Seaforth Highlanders, attached to Machine Gun Corps
Biography: Son of Rev. Donald Macrae, B.D., Edderton, Ross-shire ; born Lairg, 2 6 October 1891 ; educated Tain Royal Academy (Murray Bursar) ; Aberdeen University, student in Arts, 1907-10 ; Edinburgh University, student in Medicine, 1910-14. While in Edinburgh he was a member of the O.T.C., and in 1914 joined the Scottish Horse as a Private, from which he transferred, on receiving a commission, to the 5th (Sutherland) Seaforth Highlanders, August 1915. Proceeding soon after to France, he served with his unit and later was transferred to the Machine Gun Corps. He succumbed suddenly on 16 November 1918 to an attack of influenza, passing away at Tourney, Belgium, after having shared in the victory consummated by the Armistice. He was one of three sons from a Highland manse who gave their lives in the war. Donald Macrae was a popular personality at school, college and in the field, with a great love of the open-air and manly pastimes. The war found him strong in native grit and courage, with instinctive loyalty and patriotism veiled by true Scottish reserve. Devotion to duty and keenness for the fray were his distinctive characteristics.
Date of Death: 16 November 1918
Burial Details: Buried at Tournai Communal Cemetery Allied Extension, Plot 4, Row B, Grave 3.
Publication: Roll of Service, edited by Mabel Desborough Allardyce. Published 1921.
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