 He was head of the Church's Board of Social Responsibility (one of the Church's six councils, and the largest voluntary provider of social care in Scotland) during the 1980s.McGhee was born in Port Glasgow, Renfrewshire, on 29 July 1929, the first son of Robert McGhee (who had set up various missions and Sunday Schools in some of Glasgow's most deprived areas) and Catherine Hawthorn Ferguson.He served two years in the Royal Air Force before training as an accountant.