Soldier.
Born at London, England around 1851, son of Henry Herbert and Ann Ellen Swinford, he came to Canada as a boy and lived at Guelph, Ontario for some 20 years before coming to Winnipeg in 1876. He worked for two years in the office of the Red River Transportation Company, with his brother Herbert Swinford. When the Pembina Branch of the Canadian Pacific Railway was opened between Emerson and Winnipeg, he became an agent for the line, remaining there until the Winnipeg land boom of 1881-1882 when he resigned to work as a bookkeeper for the real estate firm of Guilmett and Young. He later worked in the real estate office of McDonald, McVicar and Company, and later was assistant manager of the Freehold Loan and Savings Company. At the outbreak of the 1885 North West Rebellion, he enlisted in the 90th Winnipeg Battalion and received a serious head wound during the Battle of Fish Creek on 24 April 1885. He died on 30 April 1885 and his body was brought to Winnipeg for burial in the St. John’s Cathedral Cemetery. He is commemorated by the Volunteers Monument in Winnipeg.
Death registration, Manitoba Vital Statistics.
“Poor Swinford,” Manitoba Free Press, 2 May 1885, page 1.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 13 April 2023
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