Father McCabe
About: A priest who, by Murphy's memoir, came from "Lochore St Kenneths, back home" and ran a Boys Town at Ranchi in India when Murphy's battalion of the Black Watch came there, after the fall of Singapore. Murphy is the only source for him.
Unit or role: Priest running a Boys Town at Ranchi (p.4).
Where: Ranchi, India; Lochore, Fife.
Evidence: ⚠︎ Murphy's word only (p.4; the typed transcript).
◐ "Lochore St Kenneths". The Scottish Catholic Archives catalogue a Catholic mission and parish as "Lochore, Fife, St Kenneth": "Main Street, Glencraig; foundation dates of 1913 and 1924; closed 2007" (SCA/MP/189). That this is the parish Murphy meant is our reading of his words; the parish's papers, which the archive holds, have not been seen.
With Murphy
Link to the section With MurphyMurphy's battalion boarded "the famous MAURETANIA", and "Singapore fell while we were at Sea so we ~~called~~ diverted into Bombay (INDIA.)" (p.3; the struck word reads as "called" on the scan). The next page goes on:
[word struck out] Made our way to RANCHI in INDIA. There was a Boys Town, run by a Father McCabe, who came from Lochore St Kenneths, back home, so the Officers were made welcome by him, and football with the boys etc, was a pleasant break from the war.
— Thomas Murphy · his memoir, manuscript · p.4
The typed transcript of the memoir tells it in nearly the same words (typed page 1). Next on the manuscript page, "An Officer came to the Batt. looking for paratroops and I volunteered and transferred to New Delhi in India" (the same). ✓ 151 Parachute Battalion was raised from British Army volunteers at Delhi in October 1941 (ParaData); more in The war before Arnhem.
◐ "Boys Town". The name was made famous by Father Edward Flanagan's home for homeless boys at Omaha, Nebraska, founded in 1917, and by the 1938 film Boys Town (Encyclopedia of the Great Plains). That McCabe's home at Ranchi was of that kind is our reading of Murphy's word; no source on it has been found.
Nothing is known. Who he was, and the boys' home at Ranchi, are open question 27.