Country: Canada
EMail: McInnesSimon@netscape.net
Entry:
James Campbell McInnes was born on
January 23, 1874 at Halcombe, Ramsbottom, Lancashire. He was the son of
Archibald McInnes and Mary Gallacher. Archibald was born in Scotland in
1834, and died in Ramsbottom in 1901. James McInnes was a baritone singer,
who made his living entertaining well-to-do Victorian families in London
with after dinner performances in their houses. His best friend was Graham
Peel, related to the English Prime Minister of the same last name. James
McInnes married Angela Mackail, granddaughter of E. Burne-Jones, the
pre-Raphaelite painter, in 1910. Graham McInnes was born in 1912, and Colin
McInnes was born in 1915.
James McInnes divorced Angela in 1917. In 1919, he
moved to Toronto, Ontario, Canada, where he taught elocution and singing for
the rest of his life, including working at the University of Toronto. He
died in 1945, and was buried in Bala, Ontario.
Angela McInnes remarried - George Allnut Thirkell, a
Tasmanian. They and the two children moved to Hobart in 1919, and then
settled in Melbourne. In 1930, Angela Thirkell left Australia with her
youngest son, Lance Thirkell, and returned to England. She made a very
successful career as a novelist, writing 40 books or so. She died in 1960.
Graham McInnes left Australia around 1934, sailed
across the Pacific to San Francisco, took a train to New York, then a train
to Toronto, where he arrived at Union Station, looked in the telephone
directory, and rang his father who was extremely surprised and delighted to
hear from him.
Colin McInnes also left Australia a year later, met
his father in Canada, and then moved on to the U.K. Colin joined up in WWII,
and then spent the rest of his career as a successful writer and novelist,
writing as Colin MacInnes. He died in 1976.
Graham McInnes married Joan Burke, of Melbourne, in
London, in 1938, and they returned to Canada. Graham McInnes became art
editor of the Toronto publication Saturday Night in the late 1930s. He
joined the National Film Board in 1942 and moved to Ottawa. In 1948 he
joined the Department of External Affairs, where he served as a foreign
service officer in India, New Zealand, London (UK), Jamaica, and at UNESCO
in Paris, where he was Canada's Ambassador.
Graham wrote and published two editions of Canadian
Art, the first comprehensive look at art in Canada. He also wrote two
novels. He is best remembered for his four volume autobiographical
interpretation of growing up in Australia in the 1930s: Road to Gundagai;
Humping my Bluey; Finding a Father; and, Goodbye Melbourne Town (originally
published by Hamish Hamilton, recently reprinted in paperback). He died in
1970, aged 58, in Paris, France, and is buried in Pontevès, Var, France.
Joan McInnes lived in the U.K. until 1979, then returned to Canada living in
Toronto until December 2000. She died in Ottawa on April 7, 2002, aged 87.
Michael McInnes, born 1941, now lives in London,
England. Susan McInnes, born 1944, now Susan Hill, also lives in London, and
has two children, Toby Crick, and Edmund Crick. Simon McInnes, born 1948,
married Heather Maclachlan in 1977. They have four children: Margaret
McInnes was born 1979; Clare McInnes born 1981; Christiane McInnes born
1985; and, Angus McInnes born 1986. Simon McInnes and Heather Maclachlan
reside in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
As far as Simon is aware, he is not directly related
to any of the many McInnes clan members living in Canada. However, proving
the power of the Internet (and of ElectricScotland), the first version of
this brief history of Simon’s side of the McInnes family was read by Ruth
Farnworth in May 2001. Ruth contacted Simon to point out several errors, and
this second version is now corrected. Ruth, the granddaughter of Archibald
McInnes Jr., brother of James McInnes, resides in Bury, Lancashire.
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