NWMP John Herron Helped Organize Prince Louise Dragoon Guards
August 3, 2016
Veteran Windy Gale send us the following article which appeared in the 43rd edition of the Vancouver Division’s Scarlet & Gold Magazine.
In the autumn of 1878 when it was learned that the Princess Louise, a daughter of Queen Victoria, was to come to Canada as the consort of the Marquis of Lorne, Canada’s Governor-General, the government decided that a Canadian military corps should be provided to escort Her Royal Highness when she arrived in Ottawa.
To this end the then Prime Minister instructed John Stewart, a young man who had served two years in a troop that had existed in Ottawa more or less spasmodically for six years, to organize and command the new units which was appropriately named the Princess Louise Dragoon Guards.
Photograph of a Princess Louise Dragoon Guards badge.
The first move was to start recruiting and a primary step in that direction was the appointment of Reg. No. 387, ex-Cst. John Herron of the North West Mounted Police as a sergeant major. Born at Ashton, Ont., on Nov. 15, 1853, Herron had gone to Winnipeg in 1873, where on November 27 of the next year he joined the Force.
Copy of the NWMP Discharge Certificate for John Herron (Source of image – Library Archives of Canada).
On May 7, 1878, when his time expired he took his discharge at Macleod, N.W.T., and returned to Ottawa to live. It was shortly after Herron arrived in the Capital that Lt. Col. Fred White, C.M.G., Comptroller of the N.W.M.P., requested him to help in the formation of the Princess Louise Dragoon Guards.
In the spring of 1881, because of his intimate knowledge of Western terrain and conditions, ex-Constable Herron was commissioned to purchase and transfer some 100 horses to various outposts in the Territories in preparation for the vice-regal tour which was expected soon to take place. With five N.W.M.P. recruits he set forth during the second week in June and saw the task through. Herron decided to remain in the West, and with Captain Stewart, his former O.C. and the first to command the P.L.D.G.’s, went in for ranching. Together they formed the Stewart Ranching Company which, with Herron as manager, became one of the largest horse-breeding establishments in what now is Alberta.
Herron spent his last days at Pincher Creek, Alta., where he died on Aug. 19, 1936. His colourful and distinguished career as a policeman, soldier, rancher and parliamentarian is recalled at this time because the unit he helped organize was among those to welcome His Excellency Viscount Alexander to Ottawa on April 12, 1946.
John was born in 1854. On November 27, 1874, he joined the North West Mounted Police joined the Force and was issued the regimental number of #378) initially served as a blacksmith in southern Alberta in what is now known as Calgary. He attended the signing of Treaty #7 on September 22, 1877. For completing his initial three years service in the Force, he received a land grant of 300 acres.
In 1885 with the threat of the Northwest Rebellion looming and with only a scattered few NWMP members in Western Canada, Captain John Stewart sought to form the “Rocky Mountain Rangers as a volunteer militia to supplement the NWMP at Fort MacLeod. The Canadian government approved the formation of three troops. When the rebellion broke out, they were ordered to report to General Strange. Several former NWMP members promptly joined:
- James Christie (Reg.#118);
- William Reid (Reg.#102);
- James Schofield (Reg.#154);
- John Bray (Reg.#92);
- Charles Kettles (Reg.#184);
- Edward Larkin (Reg.#281);
- Alfred Lynch-Staunton (Reg.#241);
- Samuel Sharpe (Reg.#206);
- John Herron (Reg.#378).
Photograph of the 1885 North West Rebellion medal with the Saskatchewan Bar. John Herron’s medal did not have this bar. (Source of photo – Sheldon Boles).
As the NWMP left the MacLeod area for the rebellion, the Rocky Mountain Rangers assumed much of their patrol duties.
With the end of the rebellion, the rangers were disbanded and all 113 members received the Northwest Rebellion Medal in addition to the rebellion scrip which was redeemable for either $80.00 or 320 acres of land.
Photograph of two NWMP Veterans (left to right) Sir Cecil Denny and John Herron.
On April 17, 1886, the original Veterans’ Association of the NWMP was formed at a meeting in Calgary. There were 23 Veterans in attendance and John Herron was a member of this group. James Walker (Reg.# O.18) was elected as the first president of this new association.
From 1904 to 1911, John was elected as a Member of Parliament for the MacLeod area and continued ranching in the Pincher Creek area.
Photograph of retired NWMP Sergeant Major John Herron (Reg.#280) (Source of photo – RCMP Historical Collections Unit – “Depot” Division).
John Herron passed away on at Pincher Creek Alberta on August 20, 1966 and was buried there.
In recognition for his service, the hamlet of Herronton was named in his honour. The hamlet is 56 kilometre southeast of Calgary.
Photograph of John Herron’s grave marker (Source of photo – RCMP Gravesite Database).
John wrote a poem entitled “The Scarlet And Gold – A Veteran Mountie’s Soliloquy” which was pasted on February 6, 1937:
Fifty year on the prairie
God, but I am growing old
I was just a lad twenties
When I donned the scarlet and gold
One of the North West Mounties,
I have watched a city grow
On the banks of the Elbow river
Where I first saw the buffalo.
Fifty years on the prairie
it’s hell how the time does fly
It seems like only a year or so
Since I bide the folks good-bye,
Striking west for adventure,
Maybe an Indian pray,
A horse, a gun and a saddle,
This my grub and six bits a day.
Fifty years on the prairie
Surely it isn;t that long
Still I joined the force in seventy-four,
Husky and young and strong,
Marching from near Fort Garry,
With General French in command,
Bringing both law and order
Into this western land.
Fifty years on the prairie
With all the excitement youth craves
Once at a river crossing
We stood off a hundred braves;
Eight of us with our rifles
Waiting the word of command,
While the Indians threatened to rescue
A prisoner we from their band.
Fifty years on the prairie
A hard life, bur what of that
I saw a million buffalo once,
Away south of Medicine Hat,
Sometimes a bed in the bunch grass,
An occasion blow-out in town,
Drinking till soused to the eyebrow.
But it’s years since I settled down.
Fifty years on the prairie
Took a homestead in eighty-one
I have froze in its winter blizzards
And broiled earth its summer sun,
I have forked a horse on the roundup
In the days of the open range;
I have prospected in the mountains
Among valleys wild and strange.
Fifty years on the prairie
Boys, but the thoughts is grand
To have helped to make this province
From the wild, lone prairie land.
Still my hear yearns for the old days.
With the ‘Riders of the Plain,”
And I’d like to be back in the saddle
With the Scarlet And Gold’ again.
