Municipal official, labour organizer.
Born at Milingavie, Scotland in 1904, he immigrated to Canada in 1924 and settled at Flin Flon. As a worker at the Hudson Bay Mining and Smelting Company for 32 years, he had no previous municipal experience when he was elected to the city council in 1933, becoming its youngest member. He served on various council committee for four terms, tangling frequently with George Baskerville Mainwaring. The two of them contested the 1937 mayoralty but were beaten by George Wellington Evans. He served two terms as Mayor of Flin Flon, starting in 1939, but was defeated in 1941 by Orson F. Wright.
He served as President of the Flin Flon and District Labour Council (1946-1947), and later was Secretary-Treasurer of the North of 53 Trades and Labour Council. In December 1954, he became Secretary-Treasurer of the Manitoba Federation of Labour and he moved to Winnipeg. In 1961, he was appointed a director of the Workers Compensation Board, where he stayed until retirement in December 1971.
On 29 August 1934, he married Mary Margaret O’Reilly (1908-1998) of Flin Flon and they had a son and two daughters. He was a member of the IBEW Union, Caledonian Society, Flin Flon Chamber of Commerce, and Flin Flon Trout Festival board. In recognition of his community service, he received a Bene Merenti Medal from Pope Paul VI.
He died at Winnipeg on 4 December 1982 and was buried in the Chapel Lawn Memorial Gardens.
Marriage registration [Peter Mc Sheffrey, Mary Margaret O'Reilly], Manitoba Vital Statistics.
V. Hedman, L. Yauck and J. Henderson. Flin Flon. Flin Flon Historical Society, 1974. [Manitoba Legislative Library]
Obituary, Winnipeg Free Press, 6 December 1982, page 34.
Obituary [Mary Margaret McSheffrey], Winnipeg Free Press, 13 June 1989, page C9.
We thank Darryl Toews for providing additional information used here.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 6 May 2024
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