CWGC - M.D., M.Ch., F.R.C.S., of The Cottage,
Barton Road. Son of John Harris McCrea, and
Jeanette McCrea, of Stillorgan, County Dublin,
Irish Republic; husband of Edith Florence Willock
McCrea. Died at The Cottage, Barton Road.

The following information has been posted to the
SWARM website.  My thanks to Pete Thomas (SWARM).

Posted by Julie - Edward McCrea was born in
Ireland in the 1890s and trained in Dublin. He was
assistant surgeon at Sir Patrick Dun's Hospital in
Dublin, but had to leave Ireland due to the
political situation. McCrea came to the Salford
Royal Hospital in 1922 as registrar in urological
surgery and in 1934 became full surgeon to the
Hospital. He was also honorary consulting surgeon
to Eccles and Patricroft Hospital. McCrea was a
well known surgeon, and built up a large and
successful practice in Victoria Park, Manchester.
He backed up his clinical practice with academic
investigations, and was demonstrator in physiology
at the University of Manchester. McCrea was also
one of the leading lawn tennis players of the
world. McCrea was killed in air raids, along with
his wife, Edith Florence Willcock McCrea (see
above) and two children, in December 1940.

Posted by Mark - The Drs McCrea and their
children's home was known as 'The Cottage' on
Barton Road.  It was in fact a large house in
substantial grounds with a large orchard. It was
hit by a parachute mine and completely demolished.
Numerous other people died in the house at the
time of the bombing as there was a house party
taking place. Nobody survived. Some years later
whilst walking through fallen leaves on the site
my foot caught on a solid object. This turned out
to be the upper lens assembly of a brass
microscope which had Dr McCrea's name engraved on
it. This went into the St Mark's School museum at
Worsley and then on to the then Eccles Museum at
Monks Hall. For the Google Earthers among us the
co-ordinates for where 'The Cottage' stood are:53
deg 29'46.81" N,  2 deg 22'39.39" W

Site of 'The Cottage' remained derelict until mid
fifties, it was then acquired as a storage depot
by North West Water and fenced off.  Ground on
which 'The Cottage' stood was redeveloped late
1900's as a retirement home complex.  This remains
to present day.

Posted by Ian - The McCrea family gravestone is in
St. Mark's Churchyard, Worsley, opposite the John
Gilbert public house, as well as the parents,
there were the two children and a maid who were
killed. My father and grandfather were standing
outside their house at 43 Barton Road looking at
the searchlights when they were both blown off
their feet and up towards the Bridgewater Hotel,
they ran round the corner and found that the
McCrea house had been totally destroyed and was in
flames and belongings were hanging from the
branches of the trees.