# Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Rae, William Fraser

​RAE, WILLIAM FRASER (1835–1905) author, born in Edinburgh on 3 March 1835, was elder son of George Rae and his wife, Catherine Fraser, both of Edinburgh. A younger brother, George Rae, settled early in Toronto, Canada, and became a successful lawyer there.
After education at Moffat Academy and at Heidelberg, where he became an excellent German scholar, Rae entered Lincoln's Inn as a student on 2 Nov. 1857, and on 30 April 1861 was called to the bar. But he soon abandoned pursuit of the law for the career of a journalist. He edited for a time about 1860 the periodical called the ‘Reader,’ and early joined the staff of the ‘Daily News’ as a special correspondent in Canada and the United States. With the liberal views of the paper he was in complete sympathy. On his newspaper articles he based the volume ‘Westward by Rail’ (1870; 3rd edit. 1874), which had a sequel in ‘Columbia and Canada: Notes on the Great Republic and the New Dominion’ (1877). There subsequently appeared ‘Newfoundland to Manitoba’ (1881; with maps) and ‘Facts about Manitoba’ (1882), which reprinted articles from ‘The Times.’
Afterwards throat trouble led Rae to spend much time at Austrian health resorts, concerning which he contributed a series of articles to ‘The Times.’ These reappeared as ‘Austrian Health Resorts, and the Bitter Waters of Hungary’ (1888; 2nd edit. 1889). In ‘The Business of Travel’ (1891) he described the methods of Thomas Cook & Son, the travel agents, and a visit to Egypt produced next year ‘Egypt to-day; the First to the Third Khedive.’
Rae meanwhile made much success as the translator of Edmond About's ‘Handbook of Social Economy’ (1872; 2nd edit. 1885) and Taine's ‘Notes on England’ (1873; 8th edit. 1885). But his interests were soon largely absorbed by English political history of the eighteenth century. In 1874 he brought out a political study entitled ‘Wilkes, Sheridan, and Fox: or the Opposition under George III,’ which echoed the style of Macaulay and showed some historical insight. Further study of the period induced him to tackle the question of the identity of ‘Junius,’ and he wrote constantly on the subject in the ‘Athenæum’ between 11 Aug. 1888 and 6 May 1899 and occasionally later. He justified with new research the traditional refusal of that journal, for which Charles Wentworth Dilke was responsible, to identify Junius with Sir Philip Francis. He believed himself to be on the road to the true solution, but his published results were only negative. Rae also made a careful inquiry into the career of Sheridan. With the aid of Lord Dufferin and other living representatives he collected much unpublished material and sought to relieve Sheridan's memory of discredit. His labour resulted in ‘Sheridan, a Biography’ (2 vols. 1896, with introduction by the Marquess of Dufferin and Ava). Rae succeeded in proving the falsity of many rumours, but failed in his purpose of whitewashing his hero. In 1902 he ​published from the original MSS. ‘Sheridan's Plays, now printed as he wrote them,’ as well as ‘A Journey to Bath,’ an unpublished comedy by Sheridan's mother.
Rae also made some halting incursions into fiction of the three-volume pattern. His ‘Miss Bayle's Romance’ (1887) was followed by ‘A Modern Brigand’ (1888), ‘Maygrove’ (1890), and ‘An American Duchess’ (1891).
In his last years he reviewed much for the ‘Athenæum,’ whose editor, Norman MacColl, was a close friend. He spent his time chiefly at the Reform Club, which he joined in 1860, and where he was chairman of the library committee from 1873 till his death. He wrote the preface to C. W. Vincent's ‘Catalogue of the Library of the Reform Club’ (1883; 2nd and revised edit. 1894). To this Dictionary he was an occasional contributor. Chronic ill-health and the limited favour which the reading public extended to him tended somewhat to sour his last years. He died on 21 Jan. 1905 at 13 South Parade, Bath, and was buried at Bath.
Rae married, on 29 Aug. 1860, Sara Eliza, second daughter of James Fordati of the Isle of Man and London. She died at Franzensbad, where Rae and herself were frequent autumn visitors, on 29 Aug. 1902; she left two daughters. Besides the works mentioned, Rae published anonymously in 1873 ‘Men of the Third Republic,’ and translated ‘English Portraits’ from Sainte-Beuve in 1875.
[Who's Who, 1905; The Times, 25 Jan. 1905; Athenæum, 28 Jan. 1905; Foster's Men at the Bar; private information.]
S. E. F.