====== McRae, Allan Bernard ====== (29 July 1911-1 Aug. 1988), clergyman. (Bernard McRae, Allan B. McRae, A. B. McRae) He was born and grew up on his parents’ farm in the St. Raphael’s area, GC. Parents: Duncan Angus McRae, the noted Gaelic singer, and his wife Catherine Kennedy. He attended the St. Raphael’s separate school, Iona Academy, and the St. Francis Xavier China Mission Seminary at Scarborough Bluffs, Ont. By Bishop Couturier he was ordained to the Roman Catholic priesthood in St. Raphael’s Church, GC, on 28 June 1936. From 1938 to 1944 he was a missionary in China , till he was forced out with other missionaries by the advance of the Japanese. The //Glengarry News// of 23 June 1939 reprinted from the monthly, //China//, of the St. Francis Xavier China Mission Seminary, his eyewitness description of a Japanese air raid on Kinhwa, China. While in China, he was for a time one of the assistants to Mgr John Fraser, the founder of the Scarboro Foreign Mission Society. Fr McRae remembered the Chinese as friendly and kindly. “They didn’t flock to us,” he is quoted as saying (1986), “but we had a comparable number of converts.” He was a chaplain in the Canadian Army from 1945 to 1946, stationed in Kingston and Vancouver. He was a missionary in Japan from 1948 to 1952. In 1948, he opened the first mission in Tokyo of the Scarboro Foreign Mission Society. He joined the Canadian Army again in 1953 as a chaplain, and was stationed with the Canadian troops in Korea. The //Glengarry News// of 6 Jan. 1955 records his experience of singing midnight mass in Korea for his unit, the Queen’s Own Rifles, those present including four Glengarrians and one Montreal man with GC connections. He achieved the rank of major in 1962 (//Glengarry News// 22 Nov. 1962), and in 1966 he left the Army. Thereafter he was pastor for 11 years at Our Lady of Grace Parish, Angus, Ont., years which he is quoted (1986) as calling “very happy years,” and “the best part of my priesthood.” In 1980, he retired from the active priesthood, but he continued to assist in parishes in Canada and Florida. He died at the Hotel Dieu Hospital, Cornwall, and is buried at St. Raphael’s. He was the brother of John W. MacRae. Also for Glengarrians who served in the Scarboro Foreign Mission Society, see the entries for [[macdonald_alexander_j3|Fr Alexander J. Macdonald]] and [[mcrae_john_e|Fr John E. McRae]] in the present dictionary. ---- //Glengarry News// 10 Aug. 1988 * obituary from //Standard Freeholder// repr. Fraser //Obits.// 276-277, with geneal. note * “Glengarry Priest Sailing for China Missions,” //GN// 7 Oct. 1938, and article on 50th anniversary of his ordination to priesthood, //GN// 25 June 1986: each has biog. information, portrait * Fraser, //Gravestones//, III, 43 * text of Fr W. J. Smith’s sermon on the nature of the priesthood, delivered at St. Raphael’s on occasion of Fr McRae saying his first Solemn High Mass, and of the address presented to Fr McRae by parishioners of St. Raphael’s on the same occasion, //GN// 10 & 17 July 1936 * returns from China, becomes Canadian Army chaplain, //GN// 15 Dec. 1944, 12 Jan. 1945 * to sail for China [sic], //SFH// 12 Feb. 1948 [<6>]