Major Robert Cairnduff McLaughlin

Robert Cairnduff McLaughlin was born in Winchester in eastern Ontario in 1898. His father, physician Peter McLaughlin, was born in Dondella, also in eastern Ontario. His mother, Annie Sophia Shields, was from Lanark County in the Ottawa Valley. He was their first child. He had a younger sister who died at 6 years of age. His mother also died when he was young, leaving his father to raise him until he attended the University of Toronto to study dentistry.

He interrupted his education at 18 years of age to enlist in the Canadian Armed Services Dental Corps during the First World War. His WWI attestation papers described him as a student living at 121 Hilton Avenue in Toronto. His regiment number was 763. He was sent to Camp Borden for basic training, then deployed, though the record does not state whether he went overseas. When the war ended, he returned to the U of T, finished his degree and graduated in 1920.

By 1921, according to the Canadian Census, he was 22-year-old dentist, lodging on Charlotte Street in Paris. In 1931, he was still unmarried, still working as a dentist and lodging on Dumfries Street. His status changed in 1933 when he married Mabel Lepha Robinson, born in Lachine Quebec, but living on Grand River Street in Paris. She was the daughter of Charles Bygate Robinson and Lepha Jane Frost.

The couple purchased a plot of land at 21 Alexander Street and hired builders George W. Black and William Crichton to build their new home. It was made of reclaimed materials from the Congregational Church that stood on Grand River Street North. The church had been torn down to provide a public playground where Paris Central School is now located. The original Paris Central Public School which was demolished in 1972 to be replaced by the current Paris Central School. He and his wife Mabel raised their two daughters and lived in that house until 1991.

Dr. McLaughlin practiced dentistry in Paris until 1973, interrupted by four years in which he served during the Second World War. He was posted to Canadian Forces bases in Aylmer, Trenton, St, Thomas and finally Ottawa, concluding his military service as Chief of Headquarters Dental Clinic. He spent his final years at Telfer Place and died in Paris. He is buried where his life began, in Maple Ridge Cemetery in the United Counties of Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry.