====== McRae, Duncan Ross ====== (3 July 1906-20 Dec. 1939), physicist. (Ross McRae) Born at Bainsville, GC. Parents: John F. McRae and his wife Lillie A. Ross. He received from McGill University the degrees B.Sc (1927, in mathematics and physics), M.Sc (1928, in physics) and Ph. D. (1930, in physics). He next studied physics and theoretical chemistry at Cambridge University, England, under one of the “1851 Overseas Scholarships” offered by a distinguished British institution, the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851. At Cambridge he was a member of Christ’s College. He worked at Cambridge under the supervision of R. H. Fowler 1931-1932 and of Professor J. E. Lennard-Jones from New Year’s 1933; these men were both distinguished scientists and have lives in the //Dictionary of National Biography// and its successor, the //Oxford Dictionary of National Biography//. McRae is recorded as having left Cambridge in June 1933 to do social work in Canada. An obituary states, “On leaving Cambridge, Dr. McRae turned his attention to the study of social matters. It seemed to him that physical problems were being properly handled, but that social problems of great practical importance remained without an adequate solution. Before long, however, he turned to a new venture in physical science.” This sounds very much like a coded reference to his having become involved with communism, as was the case with so many of the generation of young scholars and intellectuals of the 1930s. He was employed at McGill University 1934-1938 as assistant on a project which the Rockefeller Foundation had been helping to fund for the application of spectroscopic methods to biology and medicine. Following this, he was in 1938-1939 employed as assistant on the installation at McGill of a cyclotron, his salary at this time being paid for a year by the Rockefeller Foundation. During these years of employment at McGill, he worked under the direction of the Canadian physicist, John Stuart Foster (1890-1964), who is remembered as one of the distinguished figures of Canadian science. In 1939, McRae had the rank at McGill of lecturer in physics. He died, aged only thirty-three, in Montreal General Hospital, “after an illness of several weeks.” He was buried in Mount Royal Cemetery. He was married to Jenny Loreen Logan and produced a son, Graeme. In McRae’s obituary, Professor J. E. Lennard-Jones (1894-1954), of Cambridge University, the physicist and theoretical chemist aforementioned, was quoted as saying in connection with McRae’s period at Cambridge University, “There are not many of his calibre, but they have the stuff of which prophets are made.” McRae, though young, was the co-author of at least eight published scientific articles. He was the brother of Lloyd McRae. ---- //Montreal Star// 21 Dec. 1939 (with portrait; QF) & //Standard Freeholder// 22 Dec. 1939; brief death notice //McGill News// 31:3 (Spring 1940) 60 * McGill University Archives: McGill Scrapbooks, Vol. 9 p. 549; McGill Staff Index * Fraser, //Gravestones//, II, 212, 287 * information from Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851 and from University of Cambridge Board of Graduate Studies * archives of Rockefeller Foundation, Rockefeller Archive Center, North Tarrytown, New York: institutional correspondence re the two McGill University projects 1934-1939, many references to McRae as scientific assistant * wins scholarship, //Cornwall Standard //23 July 1931 [<6>]