Remembering Willie McRae 100 years after his birth (2) (with chapter headings)
Scottish independence and anti-nuclear campaigner Willie McRae was born 100 years ago, on May 18, 1923. He is remembered mostly for the manner of his death, found unconscious from a gunshot wound in a car off the road in a Highland glen. Many people think he was murdered, although his brother has always accepted the verdict of suicide. We do know that in the period before his death Willie was deaved by the security services who followed him and searched his offices.
McRae is described by playwright and actor Andy Paterson in a play about his life as “a Jacobite in the battledress of a Glasgow lawyer”.
A second world war veteran who owned a gun, McRae was a workaholic with “a finger in many pies”. He appears to have advised some people on the fringe of the Scottish independence movement. He was also instrumental in thwarting the plans of the UK Atomic Energy Authority to dispose of nuclear waste in the Galloway Hills. A well-briefed Willie raised difficult questions and famously said the waste should be stored “where Guy Fawkes put his gunpowder”. At the time of his death, in 1985, McRae was preparing to oppose plans to store waste from Dounreay nuclear power station in the sea.
Chapter 1: A visit to Cumbernauld
On a bright, sunny day last summer, my uncle and I headed out of Glasgow to visit people who knew and respected McRae, Bob Roddick and his wife Sandra. I have no sense of direction and the sat nav seemed equally perplexed, so we ended up looping endless spaghetti junctions and being late which caused some anxiety.
By chance, our visit coincided with the 40th anniversary of the tragic death of the oldest of the couple’s four daughters, Eleanor, who was killed by a vehicle, full of promise at the age of 17 (1). It is always a difficult day for the family, but they entertained us with tea and sandwiches as we sat under an abundantly flowering clematis in the garden, reminiscing about Willie McRae.
Bob, a builder, was already a client of McRae’s, but at the time of Eleanor’s death they hadn’t been in touch for a year or so. McRae phoned to ask if he needed any legal assistance. He helped Bob to pursue a court case for compensation - the few thousand pounds that resulted were crucial - they helped to pay wages and keep the business going while Bob struggled with his crushing grief. McRae was at Bob’s side every day in Airdrie Sheriff Court.
Sitting at a long table covered with a tartan tablecloth, family members dropping in and out, Bob remembers his first meeting with the chain-smoking McRae in 1972 “ash on his shirt and an SNP tie”. They had a lot in common - McRae served in India as did Bob’s father. Bob’s father used to say he had been sent out ostensibly to defend the Empire against invasion by the Japanese, but in truth to defend the assets of the Jardine Matheson Company.
They were lawyer and client: “He called me Mr Roddick and I called him Mr McRae. But I loved the man”.
They would have a dram or two together at times. Bob cherishes the memory of those conversations - the last time they got together, Bob lent him a signed LP called “Ferguson’s Auld Reekie” featuring the song Mallie Leigh which they both liked. They were “cultural nationalists”. At times, McRae used to conduct legal business in braid Scots with a Sheriff who also spoke it.
McRae hated any crooked dealings - once when someone who owed Bob money suggested making a part payment in cash, McRae quashed the proposal, saying dryly “in consideration of what?” A cheque for the full amount ensued.
Bob was upset to read a remark by Peter Fraser, quoted in a book about the case “Firebrand” by Ron Culley, that McRae was “a dissolute old drunk”. McRae liked a drink but he was punctilious and professional in his dealings with Bob - a file of all their correspondence is brought out, with McRae’s characteristic style - in one encouraging Bob to deal with some business matter promptly: “Tempis fugit - it not only fugit, it damn well flies”.
It is sometimes said that McRae was gay - Bob was not aware of that and he does not appear to have had an intimate partner. He may have been lonely. He worked late most nights. Once after going to the theatre:
“One of the girls said that ‘Mr McRae had phoned and that I was to ring him whenever I got in. I phoned and apologised for the lateness of the hour and Willie said not to worry that he would be working for another two hours at least.” The reason for the call was that McRae was double booked and was keen to move an appointment.
McRae did attempt a political career. He stood in 1974 and 1979 as a candidate for Ross and Cromarty, where he had bought a cottage formerly owned by his family in the area of Eilean Donan, ancestral home of the MacRaes. In 1974, McRae came very close to winning - he was angry that a young Brian Wilson, who had defected from the SNP to Labour, stood against him and cost him the seat which went to the Conservatives.
McRae was famous for his abilities as a public speaker. He went to support an SNP candidate in the Gorbals, Bob recalls.
“There was a man in the front muttering and Willie said ‘Speak up. If you have something to say, you may as well say it.’ The man said ‘The SNP will never get in with a candidate who doesn’t stick up for the same values as Jimmy Maxton.’ Willie said: ‘Jimmy Who?’ The hall erupted, he paused and then said, ‘Oh - do you mean this Jimmy Maxton?’ and drew a leaflet out of his pocket with his photograph on the front, proclaiming ‘Home Rule for Scotland.”
Chapter 2: The Mood Darkens
In the aftermath of the independence referendum in Scotland in 1979, the mood darkened. To many on the “Yes’ side,
it seemed that democracy had been flouted. Despite a series of what were seen as dirty tricks by the No side, Scotland voted for a National Assembly - but they didn’t get one. Instead, a Conservative government that Scotland didn’t vote for packed the Scottish Grand Committee with Tory MPs from the English shires. The long years of the smack of firm government from London by Margaret Thatcher’s government had begun.
There was a growth in activity by fringe groups - the Scottish National Liberation Army, Siol nan Gaidheal (seed of the Gael). There were frequent news blackouts. For example, in 1984 the Dunkeld Lectern was seized from a church in St Albans by Siol nan Gaidheal and disappeared into the Highlands - nobody knows where but the rumour is that it was buried in a Highland grave. This golden eagle lectern could have been a 1980s equivalent of the theft of the Stone of Destiny but the news was apparently suppressed - until it turned up in the Netherbow in Edinburgh in 1999.
The prize had been looted from Holyrood Abbey in May, 1544, when an English army arrived by sea at Leith under the instructions of King Henry VIII to "put all to fyre and sworde, burne Edinborough town” - because the King’s attempt to incorporate Scotland by forced Royal marriage “the rough wooing” - was rejected. We don’t know if McRae had any involvement in the repatriation of the Dunkeld lectern but it is certainly possible, perhaps likely. (It is now on ‘loan’ to the National Museum of Scotland.)
Bringing the eagle home was one of the fluffier stunts of the time, however. In 1981, a proto-SNLA group “the Dark Harvest Commandos” took contaminated soil from an island off the coast of Scotland, which the British army used to test anthrax and then abandoned. They put some of it outside the chemical weapons testing lab Porton Down, They also said they had put some of it in Blackpool where the Conservatives were hosting their conference, although this turned out to be a harmless fake sample.
In March 1982, on the third anniversary of the devolution referendum, the SNLA emerged, claiming there was no constitutional way forward towards Home Rule for Scotland. They began a campaign of letter bombs to public figures - in 1983 there were 27 “Tartan Terror” attacks.
On September 16, 1983, to the huge embarrassment of the police and security services, two young SNLA activists on bail escaped to Ireland, they later said, with the help of McRae. David Dinsmore was a 20-year-old nationalist extremist from Falkirk charged with posting a device to Scone Palace, home of Tory Minister the Earl of Mansfield. Other similar charges were being prepared. Adam Busby was arrested on a holding charge involving vandalising an Army vehicle, but a major terrorist conspiracy trial loomed.
Years later, Busby told Herald reporter Robbie Dinwoodie: ''Knowing that the Special Branch officer at Glasgow Airport went off duty early, we booked on to the last flight to Dublin under the bogus names and addresses of real people - respectable SNP members - so that nothing untoward would show up on the passenger list. We then canceled the reservations and phoned up as late as possible asking if there was any space on the flight.” In those days there was a standby system for late bookings.
“Turning up after the Special Branch officer had gone off duty we collected our tickets and caught our flight. We were so pleased we forgot to pick up our duty-free.''
Presumably on McRae’s advice, the men then deliberately got themselves arrested in the Republic of Ireland on shoplifting charges so they could fight extradition rather than being permanently on the run. But later, Dinsmore jumped bail again (he surrendered to the British security services in Brazil in 1993 and got a sentence of community service against a reduced charge). When researching his play about McRae, Andy Paterson met independent MSP Margo MacDonald. She said that she believed McRae had been involved in the SNLA and had a hand in the two men’s escape.
“He would not have wanted to see young lives wasted,” she said.
There must have been concern in Whitehall that Scottish independence could go down the same route as Ireland where the “Troubles” were at their height. Eleven soldiers and seven horses died in the London Hyde Park bombing of 1982, and three unarmed Irishmen were shot by the Royal Ulster Constabulary later that year. In 1983, six bystanders died in London in the Harrods bombing.
There was a huge growth in special branch activity north of the border in the early 80s. Folksinger, actress and Scottish independence campaigner Dolina Maclennan was aware of attending surveillance. In a howf near Edinburgh Castle, a group of independence supporters spotted a dark van nearby with antennas turning.
And one evening after a long day at a Scottish/Irish Gaelic event, Doli returned to her office late at night searching for the address of a party they were supposed to be attending - within seconds the police were in the room asking what she was doing. She suspected they were watching the neighbouring office, which belonged to McRae.
I have been in touch with former Glasgow policeman Donald Morrison who said that McRae was subject to constant surveillance and repeated raids on his offices for years.
Morrison said: “McRae knew and told me that he reported in 1979/1980 to the Chief Constable of Strathclyde that a blue Triumph car was circling his office block at closing time most days. He also made a complaint to Superintendent Hamilton at Stewart St police office. He sent myself along to see McRae and obtain a statement from him and to update himself immediately. Mr. Hamilton and I went to the control room and a PNC ( Police National Computer ) check revealed a negative on the reg number...I returned to see Mr. McRae at his office and told him that the car reg.no he gave me was not listed in DVLA and returned ‘no trace’. Mr McRae looked up above his office window and after a pause he said: ‘M15 and Special Branch do not have to register their cars at Swansea’.”
Morrison also saw evidence of several break-ins at McRae’s office that he believed were Special Branch searches. He believes that on at least one occasion papers were abstracted and photocopied during the night.
Chapter 3 McRae’s last day
There was a fire in McRae’s place the day he died, at around 7.30 am on April 5, 1985 - probably caused by him smoking in bed. He tried to dump the bedclothes in the bath but it was acrylic and caught fire. In 2021, a former forklift driver Pat Gallagher came forward for the first time. He said that he had seen flames and smoke coming from a window in the top-storey tenement flat and run up the stairs where he kicked the door open and rescued McRae - on the way up, he saw a man in a boiler suit clutching a briefcase running away, who refused to come and help. Gallagher said he went to the police at the time but was never questioned.
Also in 2021, another retired police officer John Mooney came forward to say that Northern Constabulary never got back to him after McRae’s death to take any evidence about the fire. When Mooney attended the scene, he found a distressed McRae sitting on a chair on the landing nursing a burnt hand. He refused any medical assistance. When the force dealing with McRae’s death failed to get back to him, PC Mooney was told by his commanding officer:
“If they don’t want to know, they don’t want to know”.
PC Morrison was apparently the last person who spoke to McRae, as he left Glasgow for his cottage in Kintail later that day, apparently to take refuge from the fire-damaged flat.
Morrison said “I was on uniform patrol duties in West Nile St, Glasgow that forenoon and I saw two males in plain clothes who were obviously to me police officers taking observations.on the Agnews’ store from directly across the street. I was not aware at this time that McRae was already within the premises. Both were about 6ft, one dressed in a pale blue suit, with grey hair cut short and looked rather skinny with narrow shoulders. No. 2 was also 6ft and heavy build with rounded shoulders and a thick head of hair. He was looking into a large plate glass window which gave a reflection of Agnews store. During this time I had concealed myself south of Bath St in West Nile Street near the gents’ hairdresser. After about 5 or 10 mins, I saw McRae exiting the Agnews’ store carrying two bottles of Islay Mist. I walked up to McRae’s car which was parked on the east side of West Nile St.between Bath St and S/ Hall St. Those who had been taking obs. appeared annoyed at me speaking to McRae by doing an open hand gesture and speaking to each other.
“McRae told me: ‘I think I've got them this time as he patted his briefcase. Then twice more he said ‘yes,I’ve got them this time’. The two who had been taking obs. ran towards two waiting cars and went through red traffic signals to tail McRae causing pedestrians who were on the crossing to jump out of the way. The driver of the second car extended his arm out the driver’s window to apologise to the pedestrians. As a police driver for decades, this was a common practice for police in a hurry.”
On the way up the road, McRae stopped to change a tyre. At 10 am the next day, Australian tourists, Allan Crowe - an air accident investigator - and his wife Barbara spotted his maroon Volvo saloon car precariously lodged above a burn between the A87 and Loch Loyne. It may have rolled once and come back right side up. The driver’s window was broken. McRae was alive but unconscious. After being taken to Raigmore Hospital, McRae was moved to Aberdeen where an MRI showed a bullet in his brain. In 2018, the nurse who took care of him there, Katherine McGonigal, came forward to contradict the post-mortem. She said that the bullet wound was not in his right temple but in the back of his neck. The gun, which was not found in the car, was retrieved later from the burn. It had been fired twice.
Did McRae shoot himself by twisting around to point his small .22 caliber Smith and Wesson revolver into the base of his brain after coming off the road, perhaps after having fallen asleep at the wheel? (There was no trace of alcohol in his blood as far as we know). Was he perhaps suffering from smoke inhalation - or from what we now know as PTSD, after his wartime experience which included a spell in hospital? Or did he pull over for a rest - and the men who were following take advantage of the empty scene to bump his car off the road? Did they then walk over and finish Willie off with his own gun? A fish delivery driver told Andy Paterson that he saw a suspicious car on the roadside with its doors open close to where McRae died as he drove down the lonely road in the early hours.
We will probably never know for certain. McRae’s brother Fergus has asked for people to accept the verdict of suicide and others have suggested that Willie did talk about suicidal ideas at times.
Chapter 4 Questions and theories swirl
But all kinds of theories and questions remain - one is that McRae was in the know about pedophiles in the Scottish legal world. The BBC has recently made a “Disclosure” documentary about claims of a “Magic Circle” - possibly a smokescreen created by a nasty individual with something to hide.
It was a strange coincidence that fellow anti-nuclear campaigner Hilda Murrell was abducted and killed violently almost exactly a year earlier, in March 1984. She had been due to present her paper about radioactive waste at the Sizewell B inquiry. In 2005, Shrewsbury labourer Andrew George was convicted of her murder. Murrell’s nephew Robert Green, a former Royal Naval Commander, in 2013 published a book “A Thorn in Their Side” suggesting that the security services were involved in his aunt’s death. Documents relating to the nuclear industry appear to have been taken from her home.
In 1995, Greenpeace campaigner Peter Roche showed the Herald evidence of radioactive leaks at Dounreay which he thought Willie might have been carrying. In 2007, UKAEA pleaded guilty at Wick Sheriff Court to four charges under the Radioactive Substances Act 1960 relating to activities at Doureay between 1963 and 1984, one of disposing of radioactive waste at a landfill site at the plant and three of illegally dumping radioactive waste and releasing nuclear fuel particles into the sea, resulting in a fine of £140,000.
In another aside, Andy Paterson’s play is called “3,000 Trees” because a memorial grove was planted in Israel for McRae after his death. McRae’s original law firm was Levy and McRae and McRae took over at one point from his partner Abraham Levy as honorary consul for Israel. In the immediate post-war period, McRae also helped the fledgling state to draft its mercantile law.
Paterson, who plans to tour the one-man play again later this year, believes that there are many suspicious circumstances around McRae’s death which have never been adequately explained. He never knew McRae but spoke to those who did when researching the play a decade ago.
“I have become very fond of this man I never met. Many great people are also troubled souls, I think Willie was a troubled soul.”
He was also a remarkable man who made an important contribution to causes both political and personal, and touched many lives.
Back in Cumbernauld, Bob Roddick has no fixed idea about how his friend met his death. He would have liked there to be a fatal accident inquiry, but one was never held.
A note on Eleanor’s death
1) Eleanor Roddick was in a car with others. They were members of a wee band called Fahrenheit in which Eleanor was the singer. Coming into Cumbernauld from the Airdrie Road at the wee roundabout, a Marks and Spencer’s vehicle carrying goods to Aberdeen failed to give way at the roundabout and ploughed into the car. Paul Mulholland was killed immediately and Eleanor died five hours later at 6 o’clock in the morning in Monklands Hospital. Bob got a call from Cumbernauld Police about 7 am French time where the rest of the family were on holiday. Bob said: "The events surrounding the situation are only too clear in my mind today. This all happened at Glasgow Fair weekend, 1982. Willie must have read about it in the papers and phoned me to say to phone him if I needed any help which needless to say I did and there began a closer relationship from which we derived great comfort.” He added “Many people were saddened that a fatal accident inquiry for Willie’s death and indeed Eleanor’s never took place.”
(2) This version was corrected and updated with information about how Eleanor died. I had to create a second version so I could email it out again. The other version of this piece has also been corrected online (but I couldn’t resend it to my email subscribers).