L/Corporal Colin Macrae was born at Lairg to the Rev Donald Macrae and his wife Annie. The family later moved to Edderton and it was here that Colin enlisted in the  Tain Company of the 4th Seaforth Highlanders.
Colin was sent to the small village of Ecques. This village of 300 inhabitants had to house 1050 men. Although the front was close enough for the soldiers to hear the guns, the first men to die, including L/Corporal Colin Macrae, were not killed in action but succumbed to scarlet fever. The fact that the Battalion was out of action due to the outbreak of scarlet fever meant that the men did not receive the bar to the 1914 Star that they would otherwise have been entitled to.
L/Corporal Macrae, who was only 19 when he died, was one of three brothers who all died during the war