They made the Ultimate Sacrifice

McCRINDLE, Kenneth Gordon, CPO, 40460, RCN, died - 12 Oct 1952, HMCS SIOUX - Son of John and Matilda McCrindle; husband of Vera McCrindle; father of Marcia McCrindle all of Victoria, BC.  

CPO McCrindle is buried in the Royal Oak Burial Park Cemetery Victoria, BC.

CPO McCrindle, recently returned from Korea, was being driven back to his ship, HMCS Sioux, when the drowning mishap occurred. The ship was in port to take visiting Governor-General Vincent Massey to Victoria.

Hugh Stewart, we, driver of the car and also a Korea veteran now stationed at HMCS Naden, told police he was driving the officer back to the destroyer but lost his way in the dense waterfront fog. The automobile hurtled off the ship into 18 feet of water.

An open window on the driver's side of the car enabled Stewart to escape and fight his way to the surface where his cries for help attracted the attention of barge slip operator Mike Chomey, 795 East Twenty-third, and Alex Simpson, a crew member of the fireboat Elise berthed nearby. (The Vancouver Province 14 Oct 1952)

Sailor's Death Plunge In Car Ruled Accident

The driver of a car in which an RCN chief petty officer drowned when i plunged from a fog-shrouded barge slip into Burrard Inlet Sunday night told a coroner's jury he followed railway tracks over the edge.

The jury Wednesday returned an "accidental" verdict in the death of CPO Kenneth Gordon McCrindle, 35, from Victoria and recommended that "lighted barriers be placed across the east and west entrances to the CPR barge slip, west of Burrard."

McCrindle who had just been posted to HMCS Sioux was a passenger in a car driven by Hugh Stewart, we, of 664 Steveston Highway, Lulu Island, when it ran off the north end of the barge slip.

In a statement made to police Steward said he was following tracks in the heavy fog and wound up on the pier.

"When I found myself on the pier, I stopped the car and got out to look around. There was no one to direct us so I followed the tracks which I thought were the same ones I had been following.

"Suddenly they came to an end and the car went over." he stated.

Stewart managed to get out of the car but McCrindle was trapped as it plunged to the bottom. (The Vancouver Province 16 Oct 1952)