McKenzie, Malcolm

Rifleman Malcolm McKenzie, killed at the Battle of Ridgeway, June 2, 1866 [Copyright Woodstock Museum 1988.82.41.13]
Rifleman Malcolm McKenzie, killed at the Battle of Ridgeway, June 2, 1866 [Copyright Woodstock Museum 1988.82.41.13]

“He was the elder of two sons whose father had died and left each of them fifty acres of farmland. But Malcolm wanted to purse a college education, and so he leased his land to his brother for seventy dollars a year, borrowed an additional ninety dollars from his brother-in-law, and enrolled at University College in Toronto.”

Ridgeway (Vronsky) p.62

An East Zorra native, Rifleman Malcolm McKenzie graduated with first class honours from the Toronto University. He enlisted in the University Company of the Queen’s Own Rifles and was the first in his No. 5 Company to fall, killed instantly with a shot to the heart while fighting Fenian raiders at Ridgeway, Ontario, on 2 June, 1866. He was 27 years old. A monument to his memory was erected in the Woodstock Presbyterian Cemetery in 1868.

On 12 November, 2011, The Queen’s Own Rifles of Canada dedicated a new marker and laid a wreath at the grave.

New gravemarker for Rifleman Malcolm McKenzie, killed at the Battle of Ridgeway, June 2, 1866

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