(16 Aug. 1843-29 Dec. 1932 or 5 Jan. 1933), farmer, author. Born at St. Elmo East, GC, probably on his parents’ farm, which was on Lot 34 in the 7th of Kenyon. Parents: DONALD Sinclair and his wife Ellen Robertson. In Nov. 1901, Finlay D. Sinclair of St. Elmo, who had bought land in the West the previous winter, left GC for the Calgary area, intending to settle there. (Glengarry News 19 Nov. 1901) Finlay D. Sinclair was married on 1 Jan. 1874 to Eva Christie of Martintown, GC. An obituary of Finlay states that the Sinclair family went to Calgary in 1900, and that from that date “Mrs. Sinclair resided in Calgary, where the children attended school, while Mr. Sinclair and his eldest son, H.D. Sinclair, ranched in Alberta, first at Didsbury and later near Munson. Latterly he has been retired, living in Calgary.” (Standard Freeholder) Finlay D. Sinclair died at his daughter’s home in Calgary. He was a Congregationalist, and afterwards a member of the United Church. (nine children, eight surviving him) He published “Reminiscences of Old Glengarry,” about the early history of St. Elmo (Glengarry News 9 May 1924), “Sketches of Pioneer Citizens of Glengarry,” (GN 3 April 1925), and “Early Days in Glengarry” (The Canadian Congregationalist, 19 Sept. 1923). He was the brother of Charles R. Sinclair. In 1940 Finlay D. Sinclair’s son Finlay Willard Sinclair, who had stayed in the United Kingdom after WWI, was a wing commander in the RAF, while another son, Cameron Sinclair, was a magistrate in Calgary (SFH 1 April 1940). Finlay D. Sinclair’s son Hugh Daniel Sinclair (the H.D. Sinclair mentioned in the quotation above from his father’s obituary) died in 1944 (his obituary SFH 15 March 1944).

Glengarry News 13 Jan. 1933 and Standard Freeholder 25 Jan. 1933 (these differ on date of death) * sources on Sinclair family, as in notes to life of Charles R. Sinclair * B”: index for more detail on his publications * marries, Witness 6 Jan. 1874