Never Fire First by James Dorrance

I'm only eight chapters deep into this surprising Amazon find, but have already concluded it is very much worth sharing.

Constable La Marr of the Royal Mounted Police took no chances. A murder had been committed two days before at Armistice, almost within the shadow of the police post. He had not a doubt that the Inuit approaching was his culprit. He wondered if the slogan of the Mounted applied in case one had to deal with an insane native. It would be easy to fire upon the oncomer, undoubtedly unaware of the nearness of a Nemesis. But the training at the Regina school of police that a "Mountie" never fires first is strict. Constable La Marr could not, and did not, take a pot shot even with the intent only to wound the flounderer. This decision, as he came to find out, was wise, for the murder was far from solved.

It's surprising in that most of my search results for "Northerns" involve sappy romance novels, and a helping of homo-erotica. Neither appeals to me a great deal. So landing a hundred-year-old story that I had not come across before was unexpected.

Many Mountie adventures are more about the chase to apprehend a criminal, rather than the work to determine who committed the crime (at least those that I've located). As the teaser above reveals, in this story, the actual perpetrator of the murder may not be as clear as it initially appeared, so a little more investigative work is needed. 

While La Marr is featured in the caption above, at least to the extent that I've read the story so far, he is not actually its primary protagonist. That honour belongs to Staff-Sergeant Russell Seymour, a veteran with rookie La Marr as his only only law-enforcing subordinate. 

Naturally, it isn't long until they are unexpectedly joined by a young, beautiful young woman. It seems no Mountie story is complete without one. 

The story was written in 1924. You can sample it, or read it in its entirety, here. Perhaps I'm premature in giving it a high grade, but so far so good. 

"North West Mounted Police, Chelsea Barracks, Diamond Jubilee, 1897"

The image below was found on National Army Museum website.   

Photograph by Henry R Gibbs, 454 Kingsland Road, London, 1897.

The Grand Royal Procession to mark the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria was held in London on Tuesday 22 June 1897.

The North-West Mounted Police from Canada was formed in 1873. This contingent are wearing the distinctive Stetson headwear of the Mounted Police. The bandoliers slung across their chests carry ammunition for their Winchester repeating carbines. The North-West Mounted Police participated in the Changing of the Guard ceremony in London in 1897. On 23 May 2012 the Royal Canadian Mounted Police were invited by Queen Elizabeth II to undertake the same duty to mark her own Diamond Jubilee.

I've attempted to find the image above in a newspaper in the hope that it might name some of the gentleman pictured, but no luck so far.

"John Heron's Story of Hazardous March to Fort Calgary back in '75"

The previous post featured a soliloquy about the love of riding the prairies, written by one John Heron.

Heron is as good an authority as anyone, as the biographical details below will reveal.  The article is also from the Ottawa Citizen from February 6th, 1937. 

Fifty Years on the Prairies

I'll have more on John Heron before long but wanted to share the poem below. It was featured in the February 6th, 1937, Ottawa Citizen.

"Macleod Brought Law to the West"

 The following articles appeared in the February 10th, 1983, edition of The Province newspaper.

WFHM4: "Saga of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police"

I've been gathering NWMP/RCMP-based comic book material for some time and have begun a page to display some of it. At the moment it's specific to cover art, but interior content will be added at some point in the future.

In continuing my search earlier today, the book below jumped out while I was on the Comic Book Plus website. Rather than tell the tales of a particularly gifted fictional Mountie, like Preston or King, it aims to teach about the challenges faced by these young men back in the day. 

It was published in 1942 by Centaur and was 64 pages in length, not counting covers. Touching on a wide variety of subject, it told of Napoleon, Wild Bill Hickock, Freddie Fitzsimmons' great game in baseball's World Series the previous year and, of course, the RCMP.

The Mountie pages follow. Unfortunately, I have not been able to find story/art credits.

There have been some touch ups to these pages, involving brightening the colours, slight rotation to straighten the images, and reducing the file size to tighten up the resolution a little bit. Those aside, all credit to CB+. Click on the pages for larger versions. 

"Cows Sniff Out Clues To Solve a Murder"

The tale below was copied from the May 22nd, 1973, Regina Leader-Post. The paper had an insert celebrating the 100th anniversary of the mounted police, at that time. My subject line was the headline used for this article.

I have, thus far, been unable to locate Sgt. Anderson's first name. Too bad, I would have loved to give credit where it's due!