Mr Peter Daniel McKane was born in Vale, Guernsey in the Channel Islands on 20 December 1865.

He was the son of Joseph McKane (b. 1832), a labourer, and Mary Ogier (b. 1829), both Guernsey natives, and he had six known siblings: Joseph Thomas (b. 1856), Mary Jane (b. 1857), Thomas Arthur (b. 1859), Louisa Victoria Ann (b. 1861), Henry Nicolas (b. 1863) and Betsey Ann (b. 1867).

He first appears on the 1871 census living at Mieller (?) in St Michael, Vale. By the time of the 1881 census he is still living with his family, now at Trafalgar Square, Vale and he is described as a 15-year-old stone dresser. By the time the 1891 census had been conducted he had already left Guernsey and he appeared on the 1892 New York census living in Murray Township in Orleans, New York. He had emigrated around 1887 with his friend and colleague William Douton and continued to work as a quarryman in Murray and Rochester, New York. He was unmarried.

Peter had been one of a party of 11 visiting the Channel Islands. The group included his friend William Douton, Lillian Bentham, Peter and Lillian Renouf, Clifford Jefferys and Ernest Jefferys, Albert Denbuoy and Emily Rugg.  He boarded the Titanic at Southampton as a second class passenger together with William Douton (joint ticket number 38403 which cost £26). He had been staying with family in Vale, Guernsey.

Peter Dan McKane died in the sinking and his body, if recovered, was never identified.

A memorial stone dedicated to he and William Douton was erected in Hillside Cemetery, Orleans, New York by the Independent Order of Old Fellows, of which he was a member:

ERECTED
IN MEMORY OF
W^M DOUGHTON
& PETER M^CKAIN
LOST AT SEA WITH
S.S. TITANIC
APR. 14. 1912
BY HOLLEY LODGE
42 I.O.O.F.