NORTH WEST MOUNTED POLICE / Memoir of a Doctor’s Wife

NORTH WEST MOUNTED POLICE / Memoir of a Doctor’s Wife
by Henrietta E. Haultain / edited by Donald J. Klancher

I have felt an urge to make a record of life on the plains as I knew it, with my pen and my photographs, for the memory of it should not vanish with the passing of those who lived it.

 Henrietta E. Haultain

This memoir, written in the late 1930’s, provided a unique perspective into the life of Henrietta Haultain, “a well-to-do girl of the nineties,” born on the family estate of Castleknock, near Peterborough, Ontario.

In 1890, at the age of twenty-four, ‘Etta’ travelled west as the new wife of Assistant Surgeon Charles S. Haultain, of the North West Mounted Police (NWMP). Initially introduced to frontier life at Maple Creek, Northwest Territories (now in the Province of Saskatchewan), she accompanied her husband to three other NWMP posts in, what are now, the Provinces of Saskatchewan and Alberta.

In a strikingly simple and sincere style, often interspersed with humour, she provided a truly rare and fascinating insight into the lives many members of the NWMP, their wives and families, as well as her experiences with area settlers and the Indigenous community.

Her day-to-day life as an officer’s wife was, at many times, a boring and drab existence. However, there were compensations in the form of dances, dinner parties, a variety of competitive events, along with hunting and fishing – all of which she described.

In the 1890’s and early 1900’s, there were very few white women in the Canadian West and of those, few documented their experiences, which made this work all the more valuable.

Published in soft cover, this 102-page book has over forty photographs. The project was undertaken by Don Klancher, a member of Kamloops Division of the RCMP Veterans’ Association.  For more than fifty-five years, he has researched and documented various aspects of NWMP, RNWMP and RCMP history.   Recognized as one of the foremost RCMP historians in Canada, that research has, including this project, resulted in six books.

Arms & Accoutrements of the Mounted Police : 1873-1973, (1982) – co-author
The North West Mounted Police and the North West Rebellion, (1997, revised 1999)
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police Veterans’ Association : 1924-1999, (1999)
Insignia of the Canadian Mounted Police : 1873-1998, (2009) .

He also edited and published another significant manuscript:
Royal Canadian Mounted Police / Manual of Horsemanship by Harry A. Maxted; 2013.

In addition, he has been a contributing author to such publications as the RCMP Quarterly, now known as the Quarterly; Arms Collecting; The Journal of the Military Collectors’ Club of Canada; The Medal Collector and The Winchester Collector.

Cost: $25.95 plus $6.50 packing & shipping (Five or more copies to the same address, $15.57 each, plus shipping.)

NOTE: The flat rate packing & shipping costs are for orders shipped to a Canadian address. All others please contact editor for charges.

Copies may be ordered directly from the editor: dzedo@telus.net