Gordon Charles McRae was born on the 20th of December 1935 to David and Alice Elizabeth McRae in the Quairading hospital. December in Quairading (Western Australia) is always hot and December 20th would have been no exception, but Dave and Allie, who they became fondly known as, wouldn’t have noticed, because for them, Christmas this year had come early.
Gordon was their 5th child – John was the eldest, followed by Mary, Cynthia (dec), Brian, then Gordon and Pattie. At the time, the family were living at North Yoting and before long, schooling commenced at the North Yoting Primary School. He has many memories of traveling to and from school with his siblings on a horse and sulky as well as by bike. He recalled few memories of schooling – maybe it just didn’t matter because the farm was his classroom. One morning he left his brother Brian to catch the bus on his own, deciding to wag school for the day. He thought he would wait the day out at the bus stop, so he sat in the shade of a strainer post. Unbeknownst to him, his mother saw him and wondered how long he would last. When the sun reached its midday zenith, the strainer post was unforgiving and the shade had gone….and so was he…back home to mum with his tail firmly between his legs. Later on, he moved to the Quairading School where he made many friends. There he developed his lifelong love of sport, which stayed with him for the rest of his life. Those were the days of steel sprigs on football boots, bitumen wickets and sand greens….and at that time of his life he never knew any different as he was having the time of his life.
