Ebenezer James MacRae
Ebenezer James MacRae (18 January 1881 – 15 January 1951) was a Scottish architect serving as City Architect for Edinburgh for most of his active life. Life. He was the son of Rev Alexander MacRae of the Free Church of Scotland. To family and friends he was generally known as Ben MacRae. He studied architecture under Archibald MacPherson from 1899 to 1907, remaining good friends until death. He trained at both Heriot-Watt College, the University of Edinburgh and later Edinburgh College of Art. He did various sketching tours around the country in his twenties: York, England (1902  and 1904), Melrose (1904), Belgium (1905), Cambridge (1907), Lincoln (1907), Northamptonshire (1907), and Oxford (1907). In 1908 he trained further, under John Kinross. Late in 1908 he got a post as an assistant in the City Architect's Department of the then Edinburgh Corporation, serving under James Anderson Williamson. He qualified as an architect in 1914. He served in the Royal Engineers during World War I then returned to Edinburgh as Depute City Architect. In 1925 he was promoted to City Architect, a role he held until retiral in 1946. In 1926 he took over the Director of Housing post  from the retiring City Engineer Adam Horsburgh Campbell. From this date onwards the main thrust of his workload would be the provision of high-quality social housing with good space standards and light levels. His team provided around 12,000 houses in the city, many of which in central locations to save tenants travel costs. His housing work is discussed in detail in Volume 13 (2017) of the Book of the Old Edinburgh Club. In 1936, the young William Gordon Dey worked under MacRae undertaking the city survey of the Canongate.<ref>