(26 Jan. 1916-16 Dec. 1994), family historian. (Herbert McKillican, C. Herbert McKillican, Herb McKillican) Born at St. Elmo. Parents: Charles Gordon McKillican and his wife Katie Florence Cass. Herbert McKillican, who in WWII served in the Royal Canadian Provost Corps, was employed for many years by Dominion Engineering Co., at Lachine, Que. In retirement, he and his wife lived at Sandhurst, in the Bath area, west of Kingston. He was married on 3 May 1952 to Margaret Gilmour, a professionally trained singer. Herb himself had a deeply committed, lifelong interest in singing and music. After a struggle of some years with leukemia, during which he was able to continue to live at home and maintain much of his customary routine, he died in a Kingston Hospital. (two children) Place of burial: Maxville Cemetery.

     Deeply knowledgeable about the history of GC and of his own family (seven of whom are in this dictionary), his help was much valued by GC researchers. A skilled letter-writer, with an easy, pleasant, attractive prose style, and a handwriting as legible as print, and gifted with an acute awareness of what could be achieved (and what could not!) by a minute, logical examination of the evidence, he published little, but he made his files and his information freely available to others. He contributed information to R. G. W. Mackilligin’s family history, The Followers of Saint Fillan (see note in life of Rev. William McKillican, this dictionary) and to the volume identified in this dictionary as Campbell (1986), and he contributed information and a few written pages to the 1991 Centennial Maxville. At the unveiling of the plaque in honour of Sir Edward Peacock at St. Elmo on 10 Sept. 1989, he delivered an address later published in the 1990 annual volume Glengarry Life of the Glengarry Historical Society. On the publication of the MacGillivray and Ross history of Glengarry (for which he had provided valuable information on the McKillicans), he sent the authors a highly interesting 19-page letter of notes and observations, mingling commendation of the history with occasional corrections, and illustrating various points with autobiographical material. See the entry for C. G. McKillican, this dictionary, for his family relationships.

Winter GN 20 Dec. 1994, 19 April 1995 * Mackilligin, 7, 53-70 (with portrait) * Campbell (1986), 272, 324-330 * Maxville (1991) 135, 706, in group portraits 238, 328, 413, 702 * present author’s letters from him * “unveiling…plaque”: programme (in 1-sheet, 4-page leaflet) of this event * his article, Manor Chatter May 1989, on meeting Sir Edward Peacock * honoured on leaving Maxville to join his brother William at LaTuque, Que., Standard Freeholder 28 Feb. 1940