Memorial record
Robert’s stone bears the initials P.P.C.L.I.
Photo credit: PIHS
Open original photograph →Church Cemetery · Memorial 21
Robert G. Rankin
10 August 1953–21 June 2012
Family connections and Island stories
Ellwood Rankin: farm and ferry
Ernest Ellwood “Ellwood” Rankin (1916–2003) was a son of George Rankin and Christena Whiteway. His siblings included Robert “Bobbie”, Mae, Bertha, Anna and Ida. He shares a memorial with Florence Janet (MacDonald) Rankin.
Ruth Munro describes Ellwood as the fourth generation on the west-end Rankin farm. He operated the ferry Pictou Island, built in 1949, until its grounding in 1967.
Ellwood’s brother Robert “Bobbie” and Robert G. Rankin (1953–2012), remembered elsewhere in this cemetery, were different people.
Ernest and Janet were the parents of Elwood Cameron Rankin (12 July 1947–26 July 2023) and Robert George Rankin, who died on 21 June 2012 aged fifty-eight. Janet was a sister of Helen Lorraine MacMillan.
Elwood and Robert fished lobster, herring, scallops and mackerel together for thirty years. They also farmed and gardened the family property. Robert served for five years with the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry. Elwood’s fishing career spanned fifty years; he later lived in Meadowville with his wife Joan. His son Bobby and granddaughter Kennedy are named in his obituary.
Sources: 1931 census; Ruth Munro, Pictou Island (1984); PIHS histories; photographed Rankin memorials. Elwood Cameron Rankin obituary (2023); Robert George Rankin obituary (2012); Helen Lorraine MacMillan obituary (2019); Florence Janet identification supplied by Dana Morin.
More memorials in this story
Explore other memorials mentioned in this story. Some connections remain uncertain, as described above.