Notes A birth registration was found for William Kerrigan; Year of Registration: 1894; Quarter of Registration: Apr-May-Jun; District: Sheffield; County: South Yorkshire, Yorkshire - West Riding; Volume: 9c; Page: 457. (Parents: William Dean Kerrigan and Mary Glossop.)
In 1901, William D. Kerrigan, 8 years of age, along with his brother Joseph W. Kerrigan, 17, silver buffer, and sister, Florence D. Kerrigan, 6, were residing with his grandmother, Sarah Kerrigan, 60, at 8 Court 2 House, 60 Furnival Street, Sheffield, Yorkshire, England. (Source: 1901 Census of England; Class: RG13; Piece: 4368; Folio: 89; Page: 3.)
Sarah Kerrigan, aged 65, died in Sheffield, Yorkshire, England, in 1906.
In 1908, William Kerrigan, 13, arrived in Quebec, Canada, along with a group of 46 boys accompanied by Sister St. Vincent de Paul en route to Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
In 1911, William Kerrigan, 16, is shown as a servant to Edward McMahon and family in Gloucester, Russell, Ontario, Canada. His date of birth is shown as December 1894 and his immigration year as 1909.
On October 24, 1917, at Belleville, Ontario, Canada, William Dean Kerrigan, 22, enlisted in the Canadian Armed Forces (Service No. 3056729). He declared that he was residing at RR #1 City View, Merivale, Ontario, Canada; that he was born on October 13, 1895; that he was born in Sheffield, England; that his next of kin was his sister, Mrs. Florence Galliues, who resided at Commericial Road, Grantham, Yorkshire, England; that he was not married; and that he was a fireman on the Grand Trunk Railroad. He was described as 5 foot 10 inches in height; dark complexion; blue eyes; brown hair. He was a member of the Roman Catholic faith.
On June 29, 1921, in City View, Carleton, Ontario, Canada, a marriage was registered between William Dean Kerrigan, 26, loco. fireman, born in England, son of Dean Kerrigan and unknown mother ("orphan - mother not known"); and another home child, Mary McAllister Johnston Mitchell, 24, maid, born in Scotland, daughter of Walter Mitchell and Marion Johnston.
William and Mary Mitchell Kerrigan had one child, Florence Iris Kerrigan (Florence was born in July, 1924, five months after the death of her father. She died in 2004).
William Dean Kerrigan died on February 27, 1924 in General Hospital, Brockville, Ontario, Canada. He was involved in a railway accident in which he received a crushed chest injury causing shock and hemorrhage.
THE LETHBRIDGE DAILY HERALD
Wednesday, February 27, 1924
C.N. Passenger, Freight Collide
BROCKVILLE, - Feb. 27. -- When C. N. R. eastbound passenger train No. 20 and freight train No. 490 met in a head-on collision at a point just west of Mallorytown station at 4 o'clock this morning, two employees of the railway were killed and two others were seriously injured, one so gravely that his recovery is despaired of.
The dead are Neil A. Woodcock, Belleville, engineer of the freight train, and James A. Ritchie, also of Belleville, fireman of the passenger train. Those seriously injured and in the general hospital here are Albert Boyes of Belleville, the engineer of No. 20, and Wm. C. Kerrigan, fireman on train No. 490.
The accident occurred in a heavy fog. One of the cars on the freight train had suffered a broken truck earlier in the night when between Mallory town and Lynn and the engine was detached to proceed to Brockville to replenish the supply of water and fuel. On its return it proceeded to Mallory twon and was pulling the rear end of the train towards that station, tender first, on the eastbound track when the passenger train traveling at a high rate of speed, struck it.
Both engines were badly damaged and it was necessary to chop out the sides of the cab to remove the bodies of the dead enginemen. A relief train carrying physicians and nurses was ordered from Brockville and returned at 7 o'clock with the two injured railwaymen. The baggage car of the passenger train caught fire and all second class mails were burned. The locked mail bags were removed successfully. Both tracks of the main line are blocked as a result of the wreck.
Later: William C. Kerrigan, fireman of the freight train which met in collision with a passenger train early this morning near Mallory Town, died in the General hospital here at 10:15 o'clock from injuries received. Albert Boyes, engineer of the passenger train, is not expected to live.
William died at Union Hospital; buried on March 18, 1924 in Roman Catholic ground; Grave Number 275, Section Q of St Michaels RC Cemetery, Rivelin.
His mother Mary died shortly after his death, in the Workhouse in Sheffield (buried St Patrick's section, aged 47).