A Recent Correspondent Requested Information About Sir Charles Kingsmill

Niagara’s Naval Connection

A recent correspondent requested information about Sir Charles Kingsmill. It came as a surprise to learn that a member of this Canadian family had carried an English title. It is equally surprising that so little is known about a man who was the founder of the Canadian Navy.

There is more detailed genealogical information in the Archives collection of St. Mark’s about the Kingsmills than of any other parish family. A chart shows the history of the Kingsmill name back to 1273. In appreciation for service, King John, of Magna Carta fame, granted one, named Hugh, some land that included the King’s Mill. A descendent, William Kingsmill, born in 1793, guarded Napoleon on St. Helen’s Island. There he married Hannah Pinnock in 1817. They had nine children, all of whom were born in Canada. William was the Sheriff of Niagara and a Warden of St. Mark’s Church. His initials are included in the high pulpit of the church, installed when he held this office.

The youngest son was Nicol Kingsmill, whose tombstone in St. Mark’s cemetery is the only one inscribed in Latin. He was born in Port Hope and practiced as a barrister. He married Lavinia, daughter of William Thompson M.P.

An older son, John Juchereau Kingsmill, was born in Quebec in 1829. He was married four times and had a total of twelve children. He died at sea in S.S. Trave in 1900. At the time of his death he had been a judge in Bruce County for 26 years.

Unfortunately, until the recent request, our knowledge of this family was limited to William and his two sons. John Juchereau Kingsmill, however, had two children from his first marriage. The eldest, was Charles Edward who was born in Guelph, Ontario in 1855. He joined the Royal Navy at the age of sixteen as a midshipman. By 1898 he had moved through a series of promotions to the rank of Captain and commanded several of His Majesty’s ships until 1907.

The following year Charles Kingsmill was promoted to the rank of Rear Admiral and sent back to Canada to command the Marine Service of the Department of Fisheries. When the Naval Services of Canada were formed, he became Director, a position he held during the First World War. In 1918 he was made a Knight Bachelor.

Sir Charles retired in 1921 and died in his home on Grindstone Island near Portland, Ontario in 1935.

This grandson of a Niagara family is worthy of recognition in his homeland, as he has been elsewhere, for he had been honoured with the African General Service Medal, the Egypt medal, the Khedive’s Star, as a Grand Officer of the Order of the Crown of Italy, an Officer, Legion of Honour of France and the Knighthood by the King of Great Britain.