William joined the medical unit of HMS Centurion under the command of Captain John Jellicoe, which was headed for Beijing as part of the Seymour Expedition.

[3]: 5  Margaret and her daughters sailed to North America on the SS Shinano Maru, landing at Portland, Oregon, where her son Robert was born on November 23, 1900.

Robert McClure grew up in the Weihui compound, and due to his friendships with Chinese playmates, could speak both English and Mandarin by an early age.

Robert was also enrolled at Harbord,[3]: 39  and during his first summer in Toronto, he worked at the Russell Motor Car Company, making munitions for the Canadian Expeditionary Force fighting in the First World War.

[3]: 48  In 1922, McClure graduated with his medical degree, and was planning to do post-graduate surgical work at Harvard University before joining the British Colonial Service.

He was approached by George Pidgeon, who asked McClure if he would instead consider travelling to Qinyang, China to replace the doctor at the Presbyterian mission hospital who had been killed by bandits.

In 1937, McClure became the Field Director for the International Red Cross (IRC), and in this role, tried to convince all the factions vying for control of central China to allow for the free movement of medical supplies and treatment of wounded soldiers.

[3]: 223 On February 23, 1938, McClure crossed paths with fellow Canadian doctor Norman Bethune, who was travelling to join Communist forces at Shanxi.

[3]: 240 With the situation in China deteriorating, McClure was unable to return to his work, so he reunited with his family in Toronto and filled his time doing fundraising tours of the United States and Europe for the IRC before attending a world missionary conference in Madras, India.

Seeing this as a potential way to get medical supplies into China for the IRC while bypassing Chinese ports blocked by warring factions, McClure decided to test it, and became only the third person to drive a car the length of the road.

While there, he made several public speeches in which he accused the Canadian government of allowing nickel to be exported through various clandestine channels to Japan, which was then using it for war munitions against China.

Realizing he could not help China or the IRC from prison, McClure unhappily sat down with Under-secretary of State Norman Robertson to craft a letter of apology.

[3]: 284 In April 1941, McClure was approached by the Quaker organization Friends' Ambulance Unit (FAU) to move medical supplies and surgical teams into China along the Burma Road while evacuating wounded.

Although McClure was willing to stay in China during the Communist takeover and try to negotiate his medical services with the new regime, he was suddenly called back to Canada due to the critical illness of one of his daughters.

Following his return to Canada, McClure spent 18 months as surgeon and gynaecologist in a group practice in Toronto, which he recalled as "a dull life" after his adventures in China and Burma.

After four months of training, each technician was sent back to their village able to handle basic lab procedures such as blood counts and slide smears.

[5] On September 1, 1966, the Canadian Broadcasting Company aired a television special "Dr. Bob McClure: medical missionary" about his life and his work in Ratlam.

"[5] In terms of the suffering he saw around him, McClure said, "Sure there are things you meet that make you feel very deeply, but emotionalism must be expressed in long-term determination, not in fluffy sentimentality.

Canadian author Pierre Berton, in his 1966 book The Comfortable Pew, called the hierarchy of the mainline denominations in Canada too staid, the clergy too interested in liturgy rather than engagement with issues of social justice.

At the 23rd General Council of the United Church in 1968, delegates were looking for a new voice, and elected the forthright and plain-spoken Bob McClure as moderator, the first layperson to hold that office.

As McClure admitted, "In appointing a layman as a Moderator in a General Council with probably 50 expert theologians present, it’s obvious the United Church didn't want theological views.

"[6] During his three-year term, McClure was not afraid to espouse controversial viewse not supported by church policy, admitting in an interview three months after his election "my tongue has already gotten me in a little hot water.