Electrocuted while handling live wires
A veteran of the First World War was the 120th fatality to occur since the commencement of construction of the Welland Ship Canal.
At age 44, the husband and father of three also left behind his widowed mother in Belfast, Ireland.
Archibald McKinley was born in Ireland on Sept. 10, 1885, the son of Archibald McKinley and Mary Mooney. He married Mary Agnes ‘ Minnie’ Bowman on Sept. 17, 1906, at Trinity Church, a Belfast parish of the Church of Ireland. The two had four daughters: Margareta, Elizabeth and Mary Agnes; another daughter, Edna, died of enteritis in 1916 in Canada at three months of age. A son, Archibald, died of meningitis in 1911 in Ireland at only seven weeks old.
McKinley immigrated to Canada in May 1912 aboard the S. S. Lake Manitoba. After arriving, he found work as an electrician, the trade he had followed in Ireland. His wife sailed to Canada on the R. M. S. Hesperian in November 1914 and joined him in Toronto. Shortly thereafter they appear to have permanently relocated to St. Catharines.
They would not, however, be reunited with their children until June of 1916 when, at the height of the war, arrangements were made for the passage of the little ones ( then aged nine, seven and four) out of the United Kingdom. They sailed on the ship S. S. Scandinavian bound for Montreal, accompanied by their
aunt Margaret Maye ( Minnie’s sister). Little did they know that at almost the exact same time, the children’s father was about to cross the Atlantic Ocean in the opposite direction, to play his role, along with thousands of other enlistees, in the First World War. Fortunately, Archibald was still in training at Niagara Camp and was able to see his three girls before leaving.
In December 1915, at the age of 30 — old by military standards — McKinley had signed on to fight in the First World War ( his Attestation Paper also indicated that he had already served in the 19th Lincoln Regiment for the previous 18 months). He was shipped overseas with the 98th Battalion on the S. S. Lapland. They left Halifax on July 8, 1916, and arrived safely 17 days later at Liverpool. After four weeks he was transferred to the Canadian Army Medical Corps at Shorncliffe Army Camp near Cheriton, Kent, near the English Channel. That reassignment was considered necessary because of his very poor eyesight. The following month, in September, he arrived in France as a reinforcement. He would become a stretcher bearer.
McKinley remained a private for the duration of the war. He was awarded a Good Conduct Badge in August 1918 indicating that he had pretty much stayed clear of trouble and served honourably for at least two years. He returned home in April 1919 aboard the R. M. S. Adriatic and was discharged at Montreal on the 22nd of the month. After almost three- and- a- half years of military service, he could finally be reunited with his family.
The building of the Welland Ship Canal had resumed in early 1919 and sometime afterwards McKinley took a job as an electrician with the Steel Gates Co. Ltd. It could be a dangerous job, as evidenced by the scars on his body from an earlier encounter with a jolt of electricity.
On Oct. 3, 1929, in the late afternoon, he was at Lock 2 installing electric heaters. The heaters were being used to dry paint that had just been applied to spare gates. McKinley was splicing wires when somehow he came into contact with a live high- voltage cable. Highvoltage wires are considered anything over 1,000 volts and are used for commercial or industrial applications, as opposed to most home appliances which only require 120 volts. He didn’t stand a chance and was killed instantly.
Funeral services took place from the McKinley home on Rosedale Avenue in the Niagara Gardens neighbourhood of St. Catharines, just west of Lock 3, to St. Barnabas Church. Members of the 98th Battalion Association were in attendance. Interment took place in Victoria Lawn Cemetery. — This article is part of a series remembering the men whose lives were lost in the construction of the Welland Ship Canal. A memorial to honour the men was unveiled in November. The Welland Canal Fallen Workers Memorial is at Lock 3 next to the St. Catharines Museum and Welland Canals Centre. To learn more visit www. stcatharines. ca/ canal workers memorial.