[1][2] Rae worked as a stock and station agent before serving as a bomber pilot in World War II.
After the war, he bought a property located between Blackall and Isisford.
A member of the Country Party he was elected to the Queensland Legislative Assembly representing the electorate of Gregory in 1957.
In the 1976 Queen's Birthday Honours, he was made a knight bachelor.
[3] He died in Port Macquarie, New South Wales, on 18 March 2006.