Private James Stevenson
James Stevenson was born in Paisley, Scotland on October 18, 1877. He and his wife Janet lived in Toronto where James was a butcher before the First World War. On July 26, 1915, he enlisted with the 48th Highlanders. He was later transferred to the 74th Battalion where he served for two years. He contracted rheumatism in the trenches of France and was invalided home to Canada. He lived in Paris for about two years following his short military career. He was a member of the Orange Order in Paris and also the Great War Veterans’ Association. He worked with the McFarlane Engineering Company in Paris.
Tragically, while he was at work, James was engaged in making a change and installing a new transformer in the power house. He was carrying a ladder which made contact with a high tension wire. He was given first aid immediately, but he never recovered. He died on November 25, 1918.
So far, this does not seem like a war death. However, the G.W. McFarlane Engineering Company, located in Paris, Ontario, converted its premises into a machine shop during World War I to produce artillery shells. This conversion was part of Canada’s massive wartime industrial mobilization, which saw hundreds of civilian workshops pivoted to manufacture critical munitions for the Allied forces. The Old Town Hall in Paris, Ontario was repurposed into a machine shop by the McFarlane Engineering Company to manufacture shells. Like many similar regional manufacturers under the Imperial Munitions Board (IMB), the McFarlane plant adapted its civilian engineering capacity—shifting from standard industrial work to creating heavy munitions essential for trench warfare and artillery barrages.
By 1917, the IMB was actively coordinating contracts with 650 factories located in 144 Canadian towns stretching from Halifax to Victoria. The Canadian government directly requisitioned nearly 540 industrial facilities to step in and fill critical gaps in Allied equipment manufacturing. In addition to converting existing civilian machine shops like McFarlane Engineering, the IMB established seven "National Factories" owned outright by the government to handle highly dangerous or complex tasks like loading fuses and mixing explosives. This network became so efficient that by the height of the war, Canadian factories were producing nearly one-third of all artillery shells used by the British Army, employing over 289,000 workers.
G.W. McFarlane was not the only Paris business supporting the war effort. Penmans was Canada’s largest producer of woollen knit goods. During the war, their operation, including Penman Mill No. 1, beside the Nith River, shifted heavily to producing massive quantities of standard-issue woollen socks, stockings, and fleece-lined underwear for Canadian soldiers. The demand for military knitwear was so intense that it kept the Paris mills operating at near-maximum capacity. Between Penmans and the Paris Wincey Mills, which manufactured flannel and heavier clothes, the town of Paris served as a major textile lifeline for keeping Allied soldiers supplied with cold-weather gear.
James Stevenson gave his life to provide munitions for the Canadian and Allied soldiers in the trenches of France and Belgium, which is why the town of Paris added his name to its Honour Roll. He was survived by his wife Janet. Private James Stevenson is buried in the Paris Cemetery.