Larry Burden’s This Day In The RCMP

The achievements and contributions of the Force have been built upon the individual contributions of many past Veterans. These contributions have largely been forgotten.

Veteran Sgt. Larry Burden (#35982), who served  in “E” Division for 20 years, has spent many years researching and summarizing these achievements by specific date.  Nearly every day, Larry sends out an email message with a selection from his work in progress manuscript “This Day In The RCMP” to individuals interested in these historical notes.

In an effort to share his research to a large group, Larry has agreed to permit us to develop a webpage on our website. Each webpage will post Larry’s historical notations over the past week.

If you wish to contact Larry Burden or provide additional information about his research, please email him at larryburden8@gmail.com.

June 15

1910 – The Blackfoot nation sells 115,000 acres of reserve land for 14 dollars per acre.

1956 – Honour Roll Number 112.

#18656 Constable Henry Charles Allington Chandler age 20 was killed in a police motorcycle accident, at Millview, Halifax County, N.S.

Henry Chandler only had two years service in the RCMP and was still serving at his first posting when he was killed. He had taken the police motorcycle course three weeks before and had limited experience. At approximately 6:30 pm he was driving from Bedford to Halifax and witnesses stated that it appeared that he was having problems with his hat. In the 1950’s helmets were not common nor a required piece of safety equipment. His attention was diverted long enough that when a fully loaded logging truck backed onto the highway in front of him he couldn’t respond quickly enough to avoid a collision. His bike skidded into the back of the truck and he was knocked unconscious. Suffering from a broken arm and severe head injuries, he was rushed to the hospital in Halifax where he underwent surgery, but he died from his injuries several hours later.

The remains of Henry Charles Allington Chandler were returned to his mother in his hometown of St. Andrews, New Brunswick where he was buried nearby.

1972 – #23271 Constable Joseph Lionel Michel Allard age 29 was killed when his police car left the highway and rolled over near Grand Anse, New Brunswick.

Cst. Allard along with Constables #26258 Joseph Gaston Marcel Audet and #27149 Arthur Morewood were returning from Tactical Troop training in Bathurst to their detachment in Caraquet. At approximately 12:25 am Cst. Allard lost control of the car and crashed. In the accident Cst. Audet was thrown from the vehicle and fractured his spine and punctured a lung but Morewood was not seriously injured.

Constable Allard had joined the RCMP in 1964 and had eight and a half years service. He was married with three children.

1978 – Corporal #21265 John Jack Hest the NCO in charge of the Kelowna Detachment Crime Prevention Section was awarded British Columbia’s first Commanding Officers Commendation for outstanding service in the field of crime prevention.

June 14

1906 – Honour Roll Number 30.

#2836 Corporal Alexander Gardner Haddock age 45 drowned in the Yukon River, 5 miles north of Ogilvie, Y.T

Corporal Alexander Haddock was the detachment commander in charge of Stewart River Detachment. That day he and #4043 Constable Arthur Allen set out in an 18 foot canoe paddling up the Yukon river to arrest an insane person at the community of Ogilvie. Near midnight they encountered some driftwood and rammed into a submerged log and tipped their canoe. Corporal Haddock couldn’t swim and tried to cling to the overturned canoe.

Constable Allen decided to swim to shore and suggested Haddock hang on to his coattail. When Haddock attempted to grab onto Allen’s coat he missed and sank below the surface. Allen attempted to find his partner but finally exhausted he laid on the riverbank until the steamer “Whitehorse” picked him up. A search party was then organized and they scoured the banks of the river but Corporal Haddock’s body was never found.

Born in Belfast Ireland, Haddock lived a life full of adventure. He served in the Canadian Dragoons for 14 years before he enlisted in the NWMP in 1892. After returning to Ireland for four years he returned to Canada and re-enlisted with the Mounted Police in 1898. He served for a year with the Canadian Mounted Rifles in the Boer War and continued on with his career in the NWMP and was promoted to Corporal in 1904.

1940 – #9976 Constable Edward Richmond transfers to the military in the 3rd Reinforcement draft to Provost Corps.

1969 – Constables #23748 Kirkwood A.L. Smith and #28794 G. Parker of the Dauphin Highway Patrol responded to a call at Duck Bay, Manitoba in which a man had shot at three people. When they arrived at the scene they were advised that the gunman had fled into the bush. When Constable Smith entered the bush to search for the suspect, he suddenly found himself confronted by the man pointing a .22 caliber rifle at him.

Smith remained calm and reasoned with the suspect for several minutes eventually convincing him to surrender. In recognition of his courage and presence of mind Constable Smith was awarded a Commissioners Commendation and received a cheque for $100 from the Benefit Trust Fund.

1985 – Around 10:00 pm the Hope BC Detachment received a report of a car that had plunged into the Coquihalla River. Constables #32919 Jack Van Steensel and #36540 K. C. Pankewich rushed to the scene where they found the driver of the car perched precariously on the roof of the vehicle in the middle of the raging river. Owing to the darkness and treacherous river conditions Van Steensel had a local construction company bring their crane to the scene and hooked him to the boom and swung out over the river. The first crane boom was too short to reach the victim so a larger mobile crane was brought in. Constable Van Steensel then hooked himself back onto the boom and swung out over the river and lowered to the victim.

There he tied the hypothermic man to himself and brought him back to the shore safely. In recognition of his courage and quick thinking Jack Van Steensel was awarded a Commanding Officers Commendation.

1996 – Honour Roll Number 190.

#25032 Sergeant Derek Cameron Burkholder age 49 was shot and killed, while investigating a domestic dispute, at Maders Cove, Lunenburg County, Nova Scotia.

Sergeant Burkholder was the commander of the five man detachment at Lunenburg and along with constables; #35125 Les Kakonyi, # 40514 Gary White and #40670 Roger Robbins responded to a domestic dispute involving Ronald Stevens in Martin’s Brook. After taking Stevens into custody Sergeant Burkholder placed Stevens in his police car without searching him and was speaking with him while the other members were inside the suspect’s mobile home searching it for weapons. Suddenly, Stevens pulled out a concealed .38 caliber handgun and shot Burkholder in the head. None of the officers inside Stevens trailer heard the shots and when Cst. White came outside to get something out of his car he found himself faced with Stevens threatening to shoot him. As White dove for cover yelling a warning to the other officers Stevens attempted to fire several shots at him but his fingers were so thick he couldn’t squeeze off the shots. The three officers then took cover and after Stevens fired a shot at Cst. Kakonyi then fired two shots at the gunman and one of them hit him in the chest. Further shots were fired at the assailant from the three policemen and Stevens was hit in the chest a second time. Before the police could take him into custody Ronald Stevens put his gun to his temple and killed himself.

Sergeant Burkholder was a 29-year veteran of the force and had been married to his wife Frances for 25 years and had two daughters. Over 800 uniformed police officers from across Canada and the United States attended a massive regimental ceremony for the first member of the RCMP to be murdered in Nova Scotia. After the funeral Derek Burkholder was cremated and his ashes were buried in the family plot in the Brookside Cemetery in Bridgewater.

June 13

1939 – 20th Century Fox releases the 78-minute movie “Susannah of the Mounties” starring Shirley Temple. It is loosely based on the novel written by Muriel Denison in 1936.

In the movie Susannah is the sole survivor of an Indian massacre in the Canadian west and she is taken in by the Mounties and watched over by Inspector Angus “Monty” Montague played by Randolph Scott and his girlfriend, the commanding officer’s daughter. In typical Shirley Temple style she wins the hearts of everyone at the post and makes peace between the Mounties and the Blackfoot Indians.

1977 – Constable #33041 Allen R. MacDougall rescued two youths from the Ottawa River and received a Commanding Officers Commendation.

1996 – Canada Post releases five new stamps honouring the Yukon Gold Rush. One of the 45¢ stamps features Superintendent Sam Steele of the NWMP. A second stamp featuring Sam Steel was released on November 11, 2000.

June 12

1940 – Constables #10297 Thomas Brown, #11003 Charles Patterson and #13170 Howard Puffer transferred to the military 3rd reinforcement draft to Provost Corps in WW2.

1947 – The first broadcast of the popular radio show “Sergeant Preston of the Yukon” was made this day from New York City. The radio drama was about the adventures of a Canadian Mountie and his trusty dog, King. The show continued to be broadcast on radio until 1955 when it became a television show that ran until 1958. In addition to creating Sgt. Preston, the writing team of George W. Trendle and Fran Striker also created The Lone Ranger and The Green Hornet dramas.

1985 – While on patrol in Surrey BC, #33387? Constable Jack Saunders encountered two men fighting outside of a local hotel. As he got out of his patrol car he caught sight of one man hiding a knife in his clothing while the second man lay writhing on the ground. He quickly examined the fallen man and discovered he had been stabbed in the chest. He immediately placed him in his police car and rushed him to the nearest hospital applying pressure to the wound as he drove. The victim was then rushed into emergency surgery where they repaired a punctured aorta. The assailant was later arrested and convicted of assault and Constable Sanders was awarded a Meritorious Certificate from the Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem for saving the man’s life.

2003 – Canada Post releases a new 65¢ stamp commemorating RCMP Depot Division in Regina Saskatchewan as part of a series of stamps on Canadian Tourist attractions.

June 11

1940 – Four of the members, who transferred to the military in the 3rd reinforcement draft to Provost Corps on this day, were subsequently wounded in action.

#12919 George Rose was injured in a motor vehicle accident in Italy. #11939 Reginald Rance and #10292 James Greene were wounded by shellfire, Ortono, Italy. #13234 Frederick McCutcheon lost a leg in a motorcycle accident in England.

Three of the four members transferred back to active service with the RCMP after the war. George Rose joined the RCMP in 1937 and retired a Corporal in 1959,

Reginald Rance served from 1932 to 1953 retiring as a Sergeant and James Greene served in the Force from 1927 to 1947 as Constable. Constable Fred McCutcheon served from 1939 to 1945 and received a medical discharge.

1953 – On this day in 1953 two members of the Royal Canadian Air Force parachuted into the remote community of Copper Mine NWT one thousand miles north of Edmonton, to provide emergency medical assistance to #15068 Constable Victor Patrick Cormier who was gravely ill.

Cormier had recently returned to his two-man detachment after an extended 30-day dog sled patrol and the next day while investigating a complaint of a theft he fell through the sea ice. The ice was beginning to melt and foam on the surface of the water appeared as snow and ice making it extremely difficult to tell solid ice from mush. Fortunately for Vic Cormier, when he fell through the ice he was able to catch solid ice with his elbows and managed to pull himself out of the water but after taking a few more steps he fell through the ice a second time. Pulling himself out again, he managed to crawl and stagger back to the detachment nearly frozen. He dried himself off and changed into dry clothing and had a couple of glasses of rum for the bottle that was kept for “medical emergencies” and then crawled into bed. Due to his weakened state from both the arduous 30-day patrol he had finished and falling through the ice he became sick and developed a very high fever.

The community nurse could not get his 104 degree temperature to come down so she radioed the nearest doctor, 550 air miles away at Fort Radium who ordered that Cormier be evacuated to a hospital.

Unfortunately due to the local ice conditions neither a ski or pontoon plane could land, so a request was made to the RCAF for assistance. The air force responded by flying Dr. John R. W. Wynne from Vancouver who picked up Cpl. Jack Strachan in Edmonton and they carried on to Copper Mine. When they arrived over the settlement they first dropped medical supplies by parachute and then both men parachuted to the scene. As they drifted downward, a local Inuit woman seeing men floating to the ground, was so shocked that she fainted.

After gathering up their equipment, the medical team rushed to their patient’s bedside and after a quick examination Dr. Wynne asked Cormier if he knew any prayers. When Vic said yes and asked why the good doctor advised him that he was going to insert a large needle into Cormier’s chest and if puss came out he was going to die because there would be little the medical staff could do for him. Fortunately only fluid was extracted and the doctor was able to drain the fluid from between his lung and chest cavity. This procedure continued for six days until the river ice cleared and they were able to airlift constable Cormier to Yellowknife. Vic Cormier spent nearly a year in hospital and a sanatorium in Quebec because they discovered that he had been exposed to tuberculosis, which was rampant in Inuit communities at the time.

Vic Cormier was finally able to return to active duty and was posted to Montreal and retired as a Sergeant in 1966.

Cormier joined the RCMP in 1947 after serving in the Royal Canadian Navy in WW2 as the only native Cape Bretoner aboard the HMCS Glace Bay. After retiring a second time he moved back to his hometown of Belle Côte on Cape Breton Island and became involved as a community volunteer in the annual Terry Fox Run and did his last run at the age of 78 shortly after recovering from surgery. His support of the Terry Fox Runs was recognized when on June 16, 2004 the Governor General honored Vic Cormier by awarding him the “Caring Canadian Award”. Just before he died of cancer in 2006, Terry Fox’s brother Darrell Fox traveled to Cape Breton Island, to personally thank him for raising more money in Nova Scotia than any other single person. By the time Darrell Fox arrived Vic’s battle with cancer had put him in the hospital in Cheticamp so Darrell went to his bedside and spent some time with Vic. A few days later, Victor Patrick Cormier the man who cheated death in the Navy and in the RCMP succumbed to cancer, but by the time he died, Vic Cormier had single handedly raised $125,167.70, for Terry Fox Run over 22 years, quite a feat for a man who lived in a remote village on the eastern shore of Cape Breton Island.

Amazing as his story was it gets better, for 52 years after Dr. Wynne saved his life in the Arctic he and Vic reconnected and in the renewal of their friendship they discovered that Vic’s granddaughter and Dr. Wynne’s grandson had been going to the same schools together in North Vancouver and known each other most of their lives and if not for the doctor saving his life in 1953, Vic’s granddaughter would never have existed let alone gone to school for twelve years with Dr. Wynne’s grandson! Vic was unable to attend Dr. Wynne’ funeral in North Vancouver, so he asked the author to attend on his behalf and tell the story of their amazing relationship and family connection through their grandchildren. (Post Script:Two weeks after Vic passed away the author visited his home in Belle Côte and met his wife and daughter. Vic’s final wish was that I accept his RCMP Veterans Blazer as thank you for speaking at Dr. Wynne’s funeral. I still wear the blazer today!)

June 10

1929 – Due to concerns over its sovereignty the Canadian government clamps down on foreign access to the Canadian Arctic. From this day forward foreign Arctic explorers are required to register with the RCMP.

1940 – The following members of the RCMP became part of the 3rd reinforcement draft to Provost Corps in WWII:

#8470 Sgt Frank Smith,

#9423 Constable Thomas Fisher,

#10292 Constable James Greene,

#10351 Constable Thomas Jones,

#10794 Constable Robert Gammie,

#11063 Constable Reginald Duff,

#12527 Constable John Acland

1996 – On this day, constables, #36470 D.M. Bishop and #36738 Dennis Esayenko responded to a complaint involving a glue sniffing youth who was armed and barricaded at a house in Pond Inlet, NWT . Upon their arrival the suspect fired shots into their police car. The members took cover and called in backup. Due to the remote location their backup had to fly to the scene and arrived 12 hours later. After the plane stopped in Clyde River, six additional members #36070 Robert Elliot; #37512 Thomas Raine, #37786 Larry Sharbell, #40559 Lorne Adamitz, #36396 Howard Eaton and #35784 John Ennis arrived. The members decided to prepare a drugged sandwich for the suspect to eat but in the interim the suspect began firing more shots at the police. They responded by firing tear gas into the house and the youth finally surrendered. A hungry fireman who was on standby at the scene saw the sandwich and ate it. Shortly thereafter he fell into a very deep sleep!

2003 – Honour Roll Number 202.

#40876 Constable Joseph Leo Ghislain “Gus” Maurice, age 35. Died as a result of a police motor vehicle accident, on Highway 21 near Sherwood Park, Alberta.

Constable Maurice was working traffic enforcement on Highway 21 on the eastern side of Edmonton and was in the process of conducting a u-turn in his unmarked police car so he could catch a speeding vehicle. Unfortunately the driver of a gravel truck that was traveling behind him didn’t expect him to cut across the road in front of him and couldn’t stop quick enough to avoid crashing into the police car. The gravel truck smashed into the drivers’ door and demolished the police car killing Cst. Maurice instantly.

Over 1200 people attended the 14-year veterans funeral in Sherwood Park and many others attended a second service in his hometown of Hull Quebec, including the Commissioner of the RCMP. Over the course of his career Gus Maurice served in the Albertan communities of Evansberg, Cardston, and Sherwood Park and participated in a United Nations Peace Keeping mission in Haiti. Seven months after his death his wife Kathy gave birth to their second child.

June 9

1934 – Seventeen men led by Inspector H.M. Howell parade on horseback through the streets of Portland Oregon at the Rose Festival. Where at the Multnomah they gave an exhibition of mounted drills. The event was recorded in the Portland Oregonians editorial where the writer commented on the thunderous applause along the entire parade route.

1976 -Four members receive Commanding Officers Commendations for their role in the rescue of a pilot and two RCMP passengers near Richer, Manitoba. The four members; #16752 Fabian Pavelick, #18788 Donald Belfry, #26417 Alexander Graham and #27583 Brian Montemurro responded to the scene where a traffic observation plane had crashed. The pilot and his two passengers survived.

1985 – At approximately 11:30 pm #? Constable Bert Schmidt observed a car traveling at a high rate of speed. When he went after the suspect vehicle it became involved in a collision and caught on fire. The suspect driver then ran from the car leaving his passenger trapped inside the burning vehicle. Without hesitation, Constable Schmidt ran over to the burning vehicle and, unable to open the passenger door, he smashed out the window and pulled her to safety. For his courage and quick thinking in saving the woman’s life he was awarded a Commanding Officers Commendation.

1987 – While serving at Mission, British Columbia, #37087 Constable Terry Betts responded to an incident where an armed mentally deranged man was threatening the life of another policeman. Constable Betts distracted the suspect thereby drawing his attention away from the other member and preventing the death of his coworker. Betts was awarded a Commendation for bravery.