Inspector Lachlan MCKINNON (39)
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PI McKinnon died after he was stabbed by a male who was causing a disturbance in Hamilton Street Greenock. He was survived by his wife and young family.
On the 1st January 1869 Mr Simpson was behind the counter of his confectioners’ shop at 33 Hamilton Street, Greenock, when a rather inebriated man entered the shop and demanded beer. When he was told the shop didn`t sell beer he ’was disposed to be noisy...` and Mr Simpson tried to coax him outside. It would appear an altercation ensued.
As is often the case, this attracted a crowd around the shop doorway and a neighbour of Simpson`s named Thomson tried to intervene, but received a glancing blow to his arm when the male produced a large pocketknife.
Inspector McKinnon happened to be passing at the time and told the male he was being arrested. The male immediately lashed out with the knife, striking the Inspector on his neck, behind his left ear.
The gravely wounded Inspector was carried to a nearby druggist’s shop by some of the onlookers while the others, including Thomson, pursued the accused who discarded the knife as he ran.
Although a doctor was called, no-one could do anything for Inspector McKinnon who died there in the druggist`s shop within minutes.
His assailant didn`t get very far as `hotly pursued by the crowd, which, hearing that he had stabbed a man, closed in on him and had him conveyed to the police station where he arrived in a most infuriated state...`.
The culprit gave various stories to the police, claiming to have been born in America to Irish parents and having been `a seaman saved from the wreck of the `Hibernia...`. In fact, he was an apprentice at a local shipyard and a native of Donegal, where his mother still lived.
He appeared before Lord Justice Clerk at the ‘Glasgow Circuit Court’ in April 1869 charged with murder. After a short trial the jury returned a verdict of Culpable Homicide and he was sentenced to 20 years penal servitude.
Inspector Lachlan McKinnon was 39 years of age with a wife and young family. He had joined the force in 1851 and was described as ‘a most intelligent officer, and remarkable for his quiet disposition. He was well-known and much esteemed not only by his fellow-officers but by all who knew him.... and his sad fate in the discharge of his duty will be deeply regretted.`
Inspector Lachlan McKinnon’s name is engraved on the Scottish Police Memorial and he will never be forgotten.
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