For the next Five Fridays, I'm doing blog posts about Canadian heroes of History... some you may have heard of... others you may not know... in under 800 words (not including my usual last note), I'm going to TRY and introduce them to you as best I can...

So far, I've done posts about...

- Molly Brant
- Mary Shadd Cary
- Madeleine de Verchères
- James FitzGibbon
- Harriet Tubman Davis
- Crowfoot
- Charles-Michel d'Irumberry de Salaberry

In the United States of America, they have emblems and icons that they bring to the fore to inspire... Uncle Sam, marching revolutionary rebels with flag, fife, and drum...

In Canada, we also have an icon... something many in the world recognise as distinctly Canadian... a Mountie.

Yes, a member of a police force... a member of The Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

This isn't too odd, after all, our neighbours to the South have a motto of "Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness" whereas Canada's lesser known - yet official motto is "Peace, Order, and Good Government" (I kid you not. The latter part is thanks to another fellow that will be blogged about later in this series... but more on that at a later date.)

Meet the archetype for the steady man in the red uniform... Sam Steele.

Born near Orillia, Ontario in 1851, Sam Steele came from a military background. He was educated in Toronto at a military academy and was a member of the 1st Ontario Rifles when a young man.

He joined the brand new North West Mounted Police (which would become the Royal Canadian Mounted Police) in 1873 as a Troop Sergeant Major and was part of the first men to set up a permanent policing force in the West of Canada. I should preface this a bit...

If you check back on my entry on Crowfoot, you may remember me mentioning the problems with the West and "Whisky Traders" amongst other things... and how Crowfoot was instrumental in getting the natives to agree to the policing activities of the NWMP... well, this is where Sam Steele comes in.

1871 saw one-hundred natives murdered in the Cypress Hills massacre. This combined with the "Indian Wars" happening South of the border showed the Canadian government the problems that could migrate North. They knew that peace and order needed to be established.

The North West Mounted Police's mandate was to protect the natives from the whisky traders, cultivate the Aboriginals respect, and prepare them for the impending changes that were spreading across the plains.

In 1874 (the year after Steele joined,) the NWMP had what has been called "The Great March" from Toronto to set up shop in Fort Mcleod in the West.

Three-hundred red-coated young men set off on what would be an extremely difficult journey through many places as yet unsettled... setting up forts and stations along the way to act as police stations for those who needed the assistance of the law.

So, far from being "lawless" as our neighbour's to the South portray their "Wild West", Canada's West would be a model of civility and order for the most part thanks to these actions... and Sam Steele would end up becoming almost the embodiment of this.

Steele, during "The Great March", gained the attention and admiration of his fellow officers with his work ethic, character, and sheer determination in his tasks.

Steele's first difficult command was looking after and policing the land where the national railway was being built. Steele literally took control and looked after land from one side of the country to the other to ensure that a rail link connecting sea-to-sea was constructed without issue.

During the Rebellion of 1885 (led by Louis Riel,) Steele formed "The Alberta Field Force" which was instrumental in putting an end to the uprising, which also led to Steele's reputation as a hard working, loyal, and honest man.

This led to his promotion to Superintendent of the force and given the difficult task of restoring law and order to the area known as Kootenay (in British Columbia) which was suffering from tensions between the white settlers and natives. Steele, being popular and well known within both communities, managed to use diplomacy and sheer presence to ease the issues and set up the first permanent post West of the Rocky Mountains in a town named Galbraith’s Ferry.

After successfully looking after that, he was posted to Macleod district, which was not only having the same problems, but also facing an increasing amount of general crime such as cattle and horse thievery and smuggling. Again, Steele's efforts helped quell the issues and his organisation skills helped stem the crime wave.

In the last part of the nineteenth century, the gold rush sent scores of people to the Yukon... and the NWMP sent their best man to control it, Sam Steele.

To quote the RCMP's official online biography of Steele...

He was policeman, magistrate and controller of rations under the very trying times of people seeking their fortunes and unprepared for the weather conditions.

Most of the "participants" in the great Yukon Gold Rush owe their survival and safety to one man... Sam Steele.

Many say that political "intrigue" kept Steele from becoming full or even assistant commissioner to the NWMP, but Steele still carved himself a niche and easily was and is Canada's most famed police officer.

You'd think this might be enough for one life... and you'd be wrong...

In 1900, the Boer War broke out and Steele was placed in charge of raising a mounted unit to help the Empire with the troubles in Africa. Steele raised a group named Lord Strathcona’s Horse (which is still an active unit in Canada's modern military) and later that year, went to South Africa with his men and ended up being a large part of setting up the South African Constabulary.

Not done yet, in 1915 he took command of the second Canadian expeditionary force in World War I.

In 1916, he accepted a posting to become General Officer Commanding Shorncliffe Area in England... a post he held until his retirement in 1918 after receiving his knighthood for his storied career.

He died in 1919 in London, England at the age of seventy.

Sir Samuel Benfield Steele... the embodiment of the honest, hard working, diplomatic, gentlemanly member of Canada's police force. An icon of Canadiana loyalty and order.

Sources:

Official RCMP Biography of Sam Steele
Wiki-Sam Steele
Sam Steele Days
Our Heritage - Sam Steele

For fun, here's a video that some Canadian's may remember about Sam Steele...

Click here for that video...

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