People on board

SKINNER, Elmer Garnet

Elmer Garnet Skinner was born on the 4th of January 1898 in Belleville, Hastings, Ontario to George Albert Skinner and Ida Bell Shaw. He was the third of their six children, one of whom died at the age of six in 1906. George was a Barber and both Elmer and his older brother Frank worked with him in his barber’s shop. Both had attended Ryerson School in Toronto.

The family was living in Toronto by 1911 and it was there on the 1st of June 1918 that Elmer enlisted with the Canadian Overseas Expeditionary Force. His brother Frank was already in the army, and had married in London in 1916 at the age of twenty-one. In October Elmer was attached to the 3rd Reserve Battalion of the Central Ontario Regiment. Like fellow Canadian William Mooney of the same regiment he was presumably returning from leave in Ireland when he travelled on RMS Leinster on the 10th of October.

Elmer Skinner did not survive the sinking of the ship, nor was his body recovered. His name is recorded on the Hollybrook Memorial in Southampton and on the Canadian Virtual War Memorial. His photo and a brief obituary appeared in the Toronto Star on the 29th of October 1918.