willie mcRae

William McCrae, born to working class parents in Central Scotland in 1923, was a larger than life character whose storied career took him from the Indian Ocean, where he served as aide-de-camp to Admiral Louis Mountbatten during the Second World War, to success as a lawyer in Glasgow, to leading the anti-nuclear movement in Scotland.

A supporter of Scottish independence from the UK, he stood unsuccessfully for the Scottish National Party in three parliamentary elections, before launching a bid for leadership of the party. One of the best known figures in the independence movement, friend and foe alike recognized his wit, intelligence, and oratorical skills.

On April 6th, 1985, McRae was discovered unconscious inside his Volvo. He’d set off the day before for a weekend at his holiday cottage in a remote area of the West Highlands. Though it was originally thought that this was a road traffic accident, a nurse at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary noticed a tiny hole in McRae’s skull. An X-Ray discovered a small bullet in his brain.

Completely unresponsive, his family and doctors made the decision to switch off his life support on Sunday morning. What followed was a police investigation that was riddled with inexplicable and sometimes disgraceful problems, prosecutorial decisions that seemed to defy the available evidence, and what looks very much like an official cover-up.

Was Willie McRae murdered, or was is suicide? No decision was ever conclusively reached.

Did he possess information that posed a threat to the British establishment? We know that some of his papers were stolen and others are unaccounted for.

Was he being followed by Special Branch police officers and the MI5 domestic spying agency?

And did he pose such a threat to the status quo that powerful forces wanted to silence him - forever?

willie mcRae

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