JA MacKinnon came from an English family with a long history in the military.  At least one ancestor was at Waterloo.  His father was a successful and well off business man in India,  He did the normal thing at that time, and sent his son off to boarding school in England.  From there, John went on to the Royal Military College at Camberley, on his way to an appointment as a 2Lt with the Middlesex Regiment.  In his short time with the Middlesex Reg’t, he managed to irritate just about everyone worth irritating, until his CO invited him to resign his commission or face a court martial.  In addition, he accumulated a stack of debts which Dad had to make good on.  Son moved to Canada,

When war broke out, he mobilized with a Toronto unit, and then to the Royal Canadian Dragoons of the First Contingent.  He had a string of AWL’s but managed to avoid any serious consequences.  He was wounded at Festubert, but recovered.  In December 1915 he applied to transfer to join the 15th Bn Pipe Band as a Piper.  By June he was a Cpl, and within another six weeks had risen to Sgt.  Battalion records name only one Sgt in the band (Newlands) and two Cpls (JW Thompson and A MacDonald).  By December 1916 he was commissioned as a Lt with the 15th.

Lt MacKinnon was invalided sick to England in the Spring of 1917, and attached to the 5th Res Bn.  MacKinnon went AWL for almost three months and was eventually court martialed.

On April 29, 1918, he was appointed Scout Officer of the 15th.  His officer pay ledgers for this time suggest that he was having financial troubles, and was borrowing money.  He owed the battalion fund a sum, too.  Despite what appears to me to be a rather sketchy performance, he was promoted to Captain soon after rejoining the 15th in late August 1918.  He was wounded at Marquion on September 27, 1918, ending his participation in the war.  For his actions at Marquion he was awarded the MC.

While convalescing, sometime between October and December, he got married, but did not mention it to anyone for another six months.  His family, apparently, was never told of his wife.  He “retired” from the CEF in England and did not return to Canada.

In October 1920 he accepted an appointment as a Major in the Auxiliary Division of the Royal Irish Constabulary, aka the Black and Tans.  This was a particularly nasty collection of thugs who did the British government’s dirty work during the Irish Civil War.  Major MacKinnon had a particularly vile reputation among men with vile reputations.  The IRA decided to make an example of him.  On April 15, 1921, while he was lining up a putt on the third green of the Tralee Links, an IRA sniper shot him twice in the head.  Another squad then attacked him and the rest of his party with shotguns.  They took the time to fire shotgun rounds into his body as he lay dying on the green.  Example made.  MacKinnon was buried with full honours at Windsor Cemetery, not far from Windsor Castle in Berkshire.

When his will was probated, Mrs MacKinnon appeared and claimed (successfully) her late husband’s estate.

Kim Beattie’s regimental history of the 48th makes several references to MacKinnon, including a reference on pg 398 to his murder.

You can read the story of his involvement with the Auxiliary Division of the Royal Irish Constabulary in the research document in the gallery.