Mar. 14: Winnipeg's first WWI casualty; "Premier" Clarke; Michael Henderson killed.

March 14, 1872 – H. J. H Clarke became the third "premier" of Manitoba and served until July 1874. At the time the position wasn't considered to be a premier but rather a "lead minister of cabinet." He represented St. Charles in the first provincial election and was Manitoba’s first Attorney General. Clarke Street in Osborne Village is named for him.

March 14, 1889 - The Pilot Mound Sentinel (today the Sentinel-Courier) is first published by John A. Murdock.

March 14, 1915 - Lance Corporal Duncan Patterson of the 16th Battalion Canadian Infantry (Manitoba Regiment) is believed to be the first Winnipegger killed in World War I. His wife and six children moved after he was deployed and it took over a week for officials to locate them to give the bad news.

An account of his death reads:  “While blazing away, Patterson was hit. The bullet struck his rifle as he was firing, between the stock and barrel, and glanced off into his neck and body. We tried to staunch the blood but Mowat, the stretcher-bearer, made signs ‘no good’ and whispered ‘jugular’. He was dead in a few minutes. We could see him die as he was the first man killed we were covered with his blood, we got quite a turn.”

March 14, 1981 - Police shot and killed Micheal Henderson on Garry Street. Depressed over the failing health of his father, he showed up at the St. Charles Hotel with a shotgun in what an inquest later called a "death wish." For more on the death of Michael Henderson.

March 14, 1988 - Elaschuk House, R.M. of Hillsburg near Roblin, is designated a Provincial Heritage Site.

© 2012, 2020 Christian Cassidy