Series Fonds 412-5 - Audio-visual Material and Transcripts

Finley McInnes was born in 1893 in Lucknow, Ontario. He earned a first class engineer's certificate and enlisted with the Canadian Forces in 1915, serving until taken prisoner at Ypres on 2 June 1916. He remained a prisoner for 28 months. In August 1919, McInnes joined the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and was stationed at Fort MacLeod and then at several postings in Canada's Arctic, including Pond Inlet, Pangnirtung, Nottingham Island, and Port Burwell. Corporal McInnes retired from the Force in 1936, and pursued prospecting for gold. In 1940, he was employed by the federal government to supervise Reindeer Station in the Mackenzie Delta, and later by the Liquor Board both in Aklavik and Inuvik. McInnes led numerous Arctic patrols over the years, and he took a keen interest in the Inuit, acquiring extensive knowledge about their traditions, legends, foods, clothing and hunting techniques. Finley McInnes died at Inuvik in 1978, at the age of 85, leaving behind his wife Marie and son Andrew.