Person:James Kirkcaldy (1)

He was the son of James Kirkcaldy, and Helen Brand, he was educated in Felishire and apprenticed in Gardening.

He joined the Black Watch and was stationed for six years in Aldershot, England, County Kildar in Ireland, also in Dublin, Belfast, and Londonderry. He was the Staff Instructor at the Hythe School of Musketry in Kent England for two years, and then immigrated to Brandon in the fall of 1891.

In 1891, he married Rosina Hannah Perry, Daughter of Joseph Perry of Hythe England. Her birth date was in 1866, and she died on 19th December 1961 aged 95 years.

They had seven children, Kathleen Rose (b 1892-1965), James Douglas Kirkcaldy (1893-1894), Archibald J. Kirkcaldy (b 1895), John A. Kirkcaldy (b 1896), Helen Kirkcaldy (b 1899-1914), Minnie H. Kirkcaldy (b 1900), and Fred Kirkcaldy (b 1904). 14/8/18

In April 1892 he was appointed Chief of Police, replacement for J. R. Foster who became a private Detective, a position Kirkcaldy held for thirteen years and four months. On 17th July 1905 he and partner James Smith purchased the Empire Hotel, (it had 40 rooms, see photo image); Constable W. Boyd assumed the principle law guardian’s role.

He was a member of the Canadian Militia (Manitoba Dragoons) from 1907 to 1910 and Major of the 99th Manitoba Rangers in 1914. He joined the Canadian Expeditionary Force in August 1914 serving as a Major in the 8th Winnipeg Rifles. He was wounded at the second Battle of Ypres and was invalided to Canada.

He then raised the 78th Battalion of the Winnipeg Grenadiers and took it to France in 1916, serving at The Somme, Vimy Ridge, Passchendaele, Arras, Amiens, and Cambria. On the death of Brigadier-General McBrien, he was given Brigade Command, serving at Canal du Nord, Valenciennes, and Mons.

He was awarded the Distinguished Service Order (2 Bars), Croix de Guerre, and the C.M.G. He returned to Canada in June 1919. He was a member of the Brandon Lodge #19, the Masonic Order and the Presbyterian Church.

In 1895, after a request to retain Captain John Richards as departmental head could not be countenanced in the then financially difficult times, instead it was recommended that Police Chief Kirkcaldy might handle it with his other duties. This viewpoint was not shared by the Manitoba Board of Underwriters who warned that insurance rates would rise unless the two appointments were kept separate.

In 1899 history was made with the startling disclosure that Hilda Blake had been formally arrested in Chief Kirkcaldy’s office for the murder of Mrs. Mary Lane. She admitted having purchased a gun to be used only for her own self-destruction. The weapon was found in a barrel near the murder scene.

In Court, the twenty two year old Domestic Servant suddenly declared herself Guilty of the shooting and asked for “the severest punishment you can inflict.” Yet, at a Coroner’s Inquest, the English born woman who was orphaned as a child to be later placed in an Elkhorn Manitoba farm home repeated her “tramp” story. She was committed for trial at the Fall Assizes.

By 1906, during the Summer Fair former police chief James Kirkcaldy was instrumental in clearing the grounds of a few “fakirs” who were selling Trinkets from Canvas Stalls without paying rent. He had become an abdicator from the realm of inn keeping where ownership transitions almost equalled numerically, bar room altercations.

In 1907 Kirkcaldy resigned his newly elected council seat to become the Publicity Bureau Manager and in 1908 he was also Corporation Assessor and said that despite depressed times, the population of Brandon numbered eleven thousand, two hundred and seventy five Souls. In 1909 as Bureau Manager he was complimented on his introduction of a “Brandon Beats All” prospectus which showed that as a distribution center within a sixty five mile radius, the Wheat city had no jobber or manufacturers’ equal. In October 1923, he was appointed as Brandon City Assessor. He served as an Alderman on the Brandon City Council from 1934 to 1952, serving continuously except for one year. He was President of the Brandon Winter Fair and the Brandon Livestock Association, and Manager of the Brandon Branch of the Government Liquor Control Commission. James Kirkcaldy died in Brandon on 8th May 1957, aged 90 years, and he and Rose are interned together in the Brandon Cemetery.

He is commemorated by Kirkcaldy Heights School located on Brandon’s North Hill and Kirkcaldy Drive.

Source: The History of Manitoba. George Bryce. (1906). Brandon a City by G. F. Barker.

http://www.brandonsd.mb.ca/kirkcaldy/

http://www.mhs.mb.ca/docs/people/kirkcaldy_j.shtml

http://www.mhs.mb.ca/docs/people/kirkcaldy_j.shtml