Kenora Great War Project

 

Personal Details
Date of BirthMarch 18, 1898
Place of BirthRat Portage (Kenora), Ontario
CountryCanada
Marital StatusSingle
Next of KinChristina McKinnon, mother, 577 Fleet Avenue, Winnipeg, Manitoba
Trade / CallingClerk
ReligionRoman Catholic
Service Details
Regimental Number829370
Service Record Link to Service Record
Battalion1st Depot Battalion, Manitoba Regiment
ForceCanadian Expeditionary Force
BranchCanadian Infantry
Enlisted / ConscriptedEnlisted
Address at Enlistment577 Fleet Avenue, Fort Rouge, Winnipeg, Manitoba
Date of EnlistmentDecember 11, 1915
Age at Enlistment18
Theatre of ServiceCanada
Prisoner of WarNo
Survived WarYes
Death Details
Date of DeathOctober 5, 1959
Age at Death62

McKinnon, Daniel Keith

The first born child of Donald and Christina McKinnon, Daniel Keith McKinnon was born on 18 March 1898 in Rat Portage (later renamed Kenora) in northwestern Ontario. Both of his parents were born in Ontario and over the years his father worked as a contractor and/or  carpenter. Daniel had two brothers, Patrick Robertson and James Alexander. At some point after the 1911 Canada census the family moved to Winnipeg where they took up residence on Fleet Avenue.

Listing his occupation as clerk, Daniel signed his first set of attestation papers on 11 December 1915 in Winnipeg. He gave his birth date as 18 March 1898, later changed to 1897. Underage, he was a big lad, 6 feet tall  with a girth of 39 inches and expansion of 5 inches. He had blue eyes and light brown hair.  As a Private with the 144th Battalion (Winnipeg Rifles) that had just begun recruiting in Winnipeg that December, Daniel began training at Camp Hughes just west of Carberry in Manitoba. However, he did not leave with the unit for overseas as he was admitted to St Boniface Hospital in Winnipeg in May of 1916 with tonsillitis, discharged a week later. By the end of July he was admitted to the Winnipeg General Hospital with pleurisy and stayed in the hospital for close to three months. Back at the camp for only a month, he was readmitted in November suffering from empryema (collection of pus in the pleural cavity that develops when bacteria invades the pleural space) following pneumonia contracted at Camp Hughes. Found medically unfit, Daniel was discharged from service on 19 January 1917.

With a birth date given as 18 March 1896, Daniel signed recruitment papers in Winnipeg with the 1st Depot Battalion Manitoba Regiment on 25 June 1918. His occupation was given as police constable and his next of kin his mother Christina in Winnipeg. After his medical examination he was rated as category C2, fit for service in Canada. He was appointed Provost Sergeant in early January of 1919. A Provost Sergeant is a noncommissioned officer responsible for military policing including the maintenance of good order and military discipline in a regiment or battalion. Holding the military rank of Sergeant, Provost Sergeant is an appointment, not a rank. Once again ill health intervened and Daniel was diagnosed with influenza later that month. Recovered by early February, he was discharged from service on demobilization on 15 February 1919 in Winnipeg.

On 31 December 1918, in Winnipeg, Daniel married Elsie May Johannes. Born in 1897 in Winnipeg, Elsie was the eldest of nine children of Aaron and Clara (née Salsbery) Johannes. The family operated a dairy at the corner of Lilac and Pembina Highway in Winnipeg while Aaron also worked as a labourer for the railroad. Daniel and Elsie gave birth to two children, a daughter Irene and a son Harvey. Daniel and Elsie eventually separated with Daniel moving to British Columbia around 1942 where he found work as a stock keeper for BC Packers. Once the largest fish processing facility in the British Commonwealth, BC Packers was located in Steveston, a small community near Vancouver, now absorbed into Richmond.

Predeceased by his parents Donald and Christina, Daniel died on 5 October 1959 in Shaughnessy Hospital in Vancouver, British Columbia. He was survived by his daughter Irene of Port Arthur, son Harvey  who had been living with him in Burnaby at the time, two grandchildren, as well as his wife Elsie and brothers Pat and Jim back in Winnipeg.

by Judy Stockham

Obituary courtesy of Mike Melen.

McKinnon-Daniel-Keith-1


« Back To Soldier Biographies