Schooner Pond, Cape Breton
Private Daniel McInnis 877664 born 18 February 1896 in Schooner Pond, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. Son of John and Lucy MacInnis of Whitney Pier, Cape Breton. A machinist standing 5′ 10″ tall, 136 pounds, with light complexion, grey eyes and black hair.
Enlistment of Private Daniel McInnis
Private Daniel McInnis 877664 enlisted in Sydney, Nova Scotia with the 185th Overseas Battalion on 21 March 1916. Unit sailed 12 October 1916.
73rd Battalion from 6 December 1916, joining his unit in the field on 16 December 1916.
73rd Battalion (Royal Highlanders of Canada)
The 73rd Battalion organized in June 1915 under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Peers Davidson. Recruiting began on 4 September 1915 after 60th Battalion had finished. Mobilized at Montreal. Recruited in Montreal, parts of Ontario and Quebec. Embarked from Halifax 1 April 1916 aboard ADRIATIC. Disembarked England 9 April 1916 with a strength of 36 officers, 1033 other ranks. Arrived in France 13 August 1916 with the 4th Canadian Division.
On 13 January 1917, Private Daniel McInnis detached to 16th Canadian Machine Gun Company.
16th Canadian Machine Gun Company
Organized in Organized in Floringhem, Belgium on 27 December 1916 under the command of Captain E W Sansom. Personnel from the 73rd, 75th, 87th and 102nd Canadian Infantry Battalions of the 4th Canadian Division as well as from the 10th, 11th, and 12th Canadian Machine Gun Companies. The 10th, 11th and 12th Canadian Machine Gun Companies detached from their respective infantry brigades on 1 September 1917 and, with the 16th Canadian Machine Gun Company, formed the 4th Canadian Divisional Machine Gun Battalion.
Floringhem
The whole of the company moved to billets in Floringhem on 15 January 1917 to begin training at Canadian Corps Machine Gun School. On 4 February 1917, the company moved into positions on top of Vimy. First casualties suffered on 12 February when a shell exploded at an entrance dugout, killing one and wounding four others.
Vimy Ridge
The whole sixteen guns and all four sections of the company took part in the Vimy Ridge Operation, with all sixteen guns helping capture the Pimple on 12 April 1917. The company expended 430,000 rounds with only one Other Rank wounded.
Paris
Private Daniel McInnis granted 10 days leave to Paris on 4 August 1917, later returning from leave on 18 August 1917.
Hill 70
At Hill 70, three Other Ranks killed, with one wounded. During the operation, 840,750 rounds S.A.A. expended.
Passchendaele
Luck ran out for the company during the Second Battle of Passchendaele, as one officer (Lt L Gauvreau) and 11 Other Ranks killed in 16th Canadian Machine Gun Company. In addition, one officer and over 50 Other Ranks wounded, including Private Daniel McInnis. The company managed to expend only 237,350 rounds during the operation.
Private Daniel McInnis succumbed to his wounds the same day – killed in action 30 October 1917.
Unknown what action Private Daniel McInnis earned his Military Medal.
Tyne Cot Cemetery
Tyne Cot Cemetery located 9 Km north east of Ieper town centre on the Tynecotstraat, a road leading from the Zonnebeekseweg (N332). The cemetery itself lies 700 meters along the Tynecotstraat on the right hand side of the road. Tyne Cot or Tyne Cottage the name given by the Northumberland Fusiliers to a barn which stood near the level crossing on the Passchendaele-Broodseinde road.
Three of these blockhouses still stand in the cemetery; the largest, captured on 4 October 1917 by the 3rd Australian Division, chosen as the site for the Cross of Sacrifice by King George V during his pilgrimage to the cemeteries of the Western Front in Belgium and France in 1922. The Tyne Cot Cemetery now the resting-place of nearly 12,000 soldiers of the Commonwealth Forces, the largest number of burials of any Commonwealth cemetery of either world war.
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