MOUNTED POLICE

Hokitika Guardian, 18 August 1933, Page 2

MOUNTED POLICE

TRIBUTES TO TOE FALLEN,

forty-seven deaths on duty

VANCOUVER, July 19.

In this,’ 1 the 60th, or diamond jubilee year, of the' North-West Mounted •Police, the ’ famous force is -paying tribute, i! ih' vanioUg forms, to the memory of thbse Who gave their lives in its’service -since its formation in 1873. .During that time, 21 -have been killed in the 1 line of duty/’for the imbst part murdered b'y ; the rn'en they sought to Arrest. Twenty-,six died on ; duty, and 'of these' 15 were drowned in ’ the turbulent 'waters of ‘ the uriknowh ’ hi&iterland. • h '' '' 4,444

The first. “Mo’untie" to : die -on duty was." Grab-urn, * murdered by Indian,vj’- -in the North-west Territories in 1878. There were .many casualties in j the North-west Rebellion. Three constables, Gibson, Garrett' .and Arnold, were killed- in a skirini-sh with lialf-hreeds aud Indians at Duck Lake. Corporals Sleigh and Lowry and Constable Burke were killed in action iat the Battle of Cutknife'Hill in 1885. Constable Elliot}; was killed on scouting duty.' ’ When “Almighty Voice,” a Orce Indian, endeavoured to escape in 1895, Sergeant Colebrook’ went after him, and was killed by the Indian chief. Corporal Hockin took up the trail,'but he met the same* fate, -as did Constable ■Kerr two years later. “Almighty Voice” wa-s subsequently captured and paid the supreme penalty.

-Sergeant Wilde was killed in 1896 by “Charcoal,” alias “Bad Young Man.” when attempting his arrest. Constable Davies wa« ; killed trying to arrest' “Mike Running W-olf.” An .Eskimo wanted - for murder, killed 'Corporal Doak. This wa s the' only casualty laid to the Eskimo race, which has. throughout its career, regarded the Mounted Police as its friend.

Corporal Usher was killed by train banditg in 1920. Sergeant Nicholson was killed searching .fo r ia n illicit still in ■Mainitoba in 1928: A crazed 'trapper killed Constable Mullen, when six members of the ' force' trailed’him to near the shores of the Arctic in Northern Yukon. Corporal Falls was killed by auto thieves when he held them up on the -highway in. Saskatchewan last year.

The greater*: tragedy in the history of. the force was the disaster to In-