LIEUTENANT COLONEL JAMES McARA.
 


	Lieutenant Colonel James McAra, who is now serving his eighth con-
secutive term as provincial president of the Great War Veterans Asso-
ciation, is successfully engaged in the real estate and insurance business
in Regina as a member of the firm of McAra Brothers & Wallace. Though
a resident of this city for four decades, he is a native of Edinburgh,
Scotland, where his birth occurred October 17, 1876, and where he spent
the first six and a half years of his life. It was on the 23d of April, 1888,
that he arrived in Regina with his parents, three brothers and six sisters.
Here he continued his education, begun in Edinburgh, by attending the
public and high schools and completing the prescribed course therein.
With typical Scottish thrift, he did not long remain unemployed in his
adopted country.  He became the first newsboy of Regina, selling the
Thursday night issues of The Leader, which had been established less
than two months prior to his arrival in this city. This was merely the
first rung on the ladder.  When the Northwest Council was formed he
became its first page. Altogether he served with the Northwest Territ~
rial Government for twelve years under Governors Dewdney, Royal, Mack-
intosh and Cameron-at first as office boy and finally as private secretary
to the governor.  This connection brought him into close association
with all of the men of affairs in the Territories in those days.  Subse-
quently he entered the insurance and real estate business established by
a brother, Peter McAra, Jr., and eventually became a partner in it. He is
now a member of the firm of MeAra Brothers & Wallace and also vice
president of the British Western Trust Corporation.  Eagerly utilizing
his opportunities and developing his powers through the exercise of effort,
he has made steady advancement in business circles until he has reached
a position of prominence.
	Deeply interested in rifle shooting and the militia, Colonel McAra
was made captain of the Saskatchewan rifle team that went to Rockcliffe
in 1913, and was reelected in 1914, although the team did not go to Ot-
tawa, as the Great war intervened.  At its outbreak he commanded a
company in the old Ninety-fifth Regiment of Militia, under Lieutenant
Colonel J. F. Embury. A large number of the Ninety-fifth officers en-
listed with Colonel Embury in the Twenty-eighth Battalion, which left
Regina for the front on October 31, 1914. Colonel MeAra served with
this unit until recalled to Canada to assist in looking after the men who
were returning from overseas. While in France he earned an enviable
record as an officer.  He was made officer commanding the Military
Hospital Commission for Saskatchewan in November, 1917, and in April,
1918, was appointed officer commanding District Depot, No. 12.  This
was at the time when the department of Soldiers' Civil Reestablishment
was being organized and he was given the choice of an appointment in
that department or the appointment which he ultimately accepted. Col-
onel McAra demobilized all of the Saskatchewan troops; and looked after
hospital cases until such time as the men were discharged to the depart-
ment of Soldiers' Civil Reestablishment.  He remained in uniform until
this work was finished, and took his own discharge on January 6, 1920.
The services which he performed in this connection received the com-
mendation of the general officer inspecting from Ottawa.
	Since his return from overseas Colonel McAra has taken an intense
interest in the returned men and the dependents of dead and disabled
soldiers.  He was president of the local command of the Great War Vet-
erans Association during the first two years of its existence; was chosen
president of the Saskatchewan command at the first meeting of the dele-
gates; and is now serving his eighth consecutive term as provincial
president. At each annual convention he has been reelected by acclama-
tion. At the last convention his services were recognized by the pre-
sentation to him of a large cabinet of solid silver. When the Dominion
command met in Vancouver in the summer of 1923 it elected Colonel
McAra first vice president for the Dominion. Another activity growing
out of the war, in which he has taken a leading part, is The Last Post
Fund, which buries returned men who die here without an estate and
cares for the soldiers' plot in the cemetery. This movement has spread
until Saskatoon, Prince Albert and other centers now have Last Pout
funds.  Colonel McAra has been president of the local fund since its
organization in 1918. At the present time he is serving his second term
as provincial president of the Saskatchewan Rifle Association and is
Saskatchewan's vice president of the Dominion Rifle Association.
	On the 10th of October, 1900, Colonel McAra was united in marriage
to Miss M. G. Beattie of Fergus, Ontario, and they have a son and a
daughter. The only political office to which Colonel McAra ever aspired
was that of alderman, which he held during the years 1919 and 1920.
He has long been prominent in Masonic circles and is a member of Knox
church, in the choir of which he sang for more than a dozen years. He
was first secretary of the choral society, conducted by Lieutenant Colonel
J. S. Dennis; also secretary of the choral society when the first Saskatche-
wan musical festival was held in this city in 1909, and in 1910 when the
choral society went to Saskatoon to compete. Another matter in which
he took great interest was the Empire Day movement, which had for its
object arousing in school children interest in Canada and the Empire.
The Regina Leader, which published a review of his career in its issue of
November 10, 1923, closed the record as follows: "The one hobby he has
is the returned soldier and his dependents, and seeing that they get a
square deal."


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