William McKinnell

Who was William McKinnell?

William Clarke McKinnell was a politician in Manitoba, Canada. He served in the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba from 1920 to 1936.

McKinnell was born in Northampton, England, the eldest son of William McKinnell and Catherine Perkins, in a family of 10 children. He was educated at Bedford Modern School from 1887 until 1889. He registered with the Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain as an apprentice to his father, a Northampton chemist, but abandoned this pursuit to go to Canada in 1892. By 1894 he was homesteading in Melita, Manitoba but later moved to Teulon, Manitoba where he opened the town's first store, McKinnell and Wood General Store. In 1901, McKinnell married Christina Margaret Wood. He served as chair of the school board in Teulon, Manitoba from 1907 to 1921 and was appointed as chair of the Winnipeg Suburban Municipal Board in 1925.

He was first elected to the Manitoba legislature in the 1920 provincial election. Running as a Farmer candidate, he defeated Liberal incumbent Arthur J. Lobb by a single vote in the Rockwood constituency. McKinnell served with the Independent-Farmer caucus in the parliament which followed.