[1] He was educated at Sedbergh School and later studied at St John's College, Cambridge, where he became interested in African history.

He undertook a PhD at Cambridge under the supervision of Ronald Robinson, focussing on Church of Scotland missions in colonial Malawi.

After Rhodesia's Unilateral Declaration of Independence in 1965, he left the country to teach at the new history department in the University of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania.

[2] While in Tanzania, McCracken's wife Jane Purkis was killed in a car accident only ten months after their marriage.

[3] McCracken returned to Britain in 1968 in order to take up a post at the University of Stirling, founded the previous year, where he remained for most of his academic career.