Geoffrey Gordon McCrae grew up in a creative environment in the family home Anchorfield in Hawthorn, Victoria. Part of a dynasty that includes his grandmother Georgiana Huntly McCrae, his father, George Gordon McCrae, and siblings Hugh McCrae and Dorothy Frances McCrae he inherited the family talent for writing and drawing and in 1911 began an apprenticeship as an architect.
At the outbreak of World War I McCrae, who was serving in the Australian militia, joined the 7th Battalion of the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) and embarked for Egypt on 18 October 1914. He landed at Gallipoli on 12 May 1915. Although listed to be sent home to Australia after the Gallipoli withdrawal, he was retained in Egypt because of his experience as a soldier and went to the Western Front with the 60th Battalion. He was killed in action during the Battle of Fromelles on 19 July 1916.
McCrae's diary kept from October 1914 to December 1915 is held in the Australian War Memorial collections. Dorothy Frances McCrae's poem 'Geoffrey', included in her selected work Soldier, My Soldier (1914), dedicated to her brother, depicts a family's sadness in farewelling their son and brother to war. McCrae's father, George Gordon McCrae, also wrote poems about and inspired by his son including 'Somewhere in France: Geoff', 'Anniversary of Burial: 23 July 1917' and 'Geoff'.
Source: Ross McMullin, 'Geoff McCrae : The Creative Allrounder', Farewell, Dear People (2012): 7-103
