Cecil Mack Merritt (1897 - 1915)
Cecil Mack Merritt as born in St. Catherines, Ontario. He served in the Canadian militia and then came north. He followed the Edmonton Trail in 1898 and took two years to get to Dawson.1)
Merritt was one of the leaders of a party of about ninety that attempted to reach the Klondike in the winter of 1898-1899. The other leaders were George Mitchell of Quebec City and Jack Patterson of Hamilton, Ontario. They ascended the Peel River and built cabins at Wind City. Merritt and Pattison got through to Dawson early in 1899 via the Bonnet Plume Pass and the Stewart River. Many of the others turned back in the spring and got to Fort McPherson where they were carried south by the Hudson’s Bay Company. Many suffered from scurvy and some of them died. Mitchel broke his leg during the winter and a First Nation woman performed surgery on him using pegs of caribou bone to join the fracture. The First Nation family nursed him through the winter, and he had a stiff leg for the rest of his life.2)
Merritt left the Yukon and joined the 72nd Seaforth Highlanders of Canada in 1910. He transferred to the 16th Battalion in September 1914 and was promoted to acting major in command of a company.3) Captain Cecile Mack Merritt was killed in action on April 23, 1915.4) He was awarded the British War Medal and the Allied Victory Medal. His name is listed on the Menin Gate Memorial to the Missing in Ypres, Belgium.5)