Reminiscences of an Oldtime  °

Provincial Constable

Published Posthumously, These Interestng Anecdotes by a Pioneer British
Columbia Provincial Police Officer Give a Colourful Picture of Police Work in

1 WAS BORN in Scotland and came out to
Canada as a young lad, to make my fortune
as the saying goes. I have not made any
fortune but I own my own farm, a good
one. I owe no one anything, and I have
had as much excitement in my time as any
young fellow starting off from the old
country for the far west, or the wild west,
could want. I have had that excitement
right up here in this country where I was
for sixteen years the only constable between
here and the north pole or between the
eastern boundary of the Province and Hazel-
ton. I didn’t patrol all that area: -I
couldn’t have done it. But there was no
need to, for the only people in there at that
time were Indians and a few Hudson’s Bay
officials and employees.

CAME OuT WEST

After some time in eastern Canada I
came to British Columbia and settled in
Victoria where I was in the contracting
business for some years. Among other work
I did, I built the Protestant Orphanage on
Cook Street, between King’s road and Hill-
side avenue. I also had the carpenter’s work
on the Turner-Beeton addition, for which
George Jeeves had the brickwork contract.
It was a busy little place in those days was
Victoria, and a lovelier spot to live in no
one could wish for. But I had to get out
more in the open air than was possible at
my then work, so for a time I got a job as
game warden at Cedar Hill and was sub-
ordinate to R. F. John, the Warden at the
Victoria Gaol. There was lots of game
then, both deer and birds, right close to the
city, which did not stretch as far out as it
does now. Cedar Hill was a good step from
town then, and hunters would drive out
there and to other districts by horse and
buggy. The sport was good, and while we
had trouble now and then with some one
who was not satisfied with the liberal allow-
ance of the season and bag which the law
allowed, on the whole the law was well
observed. You will find it the same with
any law in this or any other British country,
the great majority of the people obey it. It
is the few who do not seem to have the
British love of law and order that makes
It necessary to have police.

I succeeded in getting an appointment to

FOURTEENTH EDITION

the Cariboo Fifty Years Ago.

“EDITOR'S NOTE—David Anderson the
writer of these reminiscences is no longer
with us. He passed away ot his Dragon

Lake ranch in 1940 at the age of 78.

A few years before his death however,
at the urging of his friends, he jotted down
these sidelights on police work in the
Cariboo country half a century ago. It was
fortunate he did, for they furnish—with
other contemporary records—an excellent
picture of the pioneer police officer.

Mr. Anderson laid no claim to literary
ability, but his breezy anecdotal style has
a quaint and refreshing quality. The MS.
is unchanged but we have taken the
liberty of amplifying the text by footnotes.
__Old timers, both in and out of the force
will, have many memories stirred by this
pioneer record.

the Provincial Police force. “Hussey’s Pets”
they were sometimes called and we were
proud of the name. F. S. Hussey was
Superintendent of the force as he had been
for several years and continued to be for
12 or 14 years after I joined. A finer man
than Superintendent Hussey never was
made, and a better set of boys never stepped
in shoe leather than the members of the

Frederick S. Hussey _
Supt. of Police, 1891-1911.

By
DAVID ANDERSON

*

force he had built up. He was as straight
as a die, told the absolute truth and ex-
pected everyone else to do the same, and
had no use for anyone who thought more
of his own skin than of his duty to the
public. He himself was a courageous man,
but he was not foolhardy. Just cool, took
no chances of a slip up and knew no fear.
With a chief like that, no matter how tick-
lish the job a man had to do he would go
ahead and do it.

Ability was the whole thing in getting
a position on the Provincial Police in those
days and, I suppose it is still. There was
no politics about it. Superintendent Hussey
had to know the man he was engaging on
the force and insisted on having a free hand.
He chose them for nerve, courage, horse
sense and manhood. They were generally
athletic. Of course it is not always the big
fellow who is the strongest or most agile.
Hussey was a good judge of men. No one
could ever tell him a lie and get away with
it. He expected his men to obey instruc
tions but to use their common sense as to the
manner in which they carried them out. I
don’t think one of his men ever threw him
down.

I joined the Provincial Police in the
summer of 1896 and in August of that year
I was sent up to Quesnel. When I joined,
John M. Langley was sergeant’ under Super-
intendent Hussey and held that position
for some years after that until he was
appointed Chief of Police of Victoria city.
When he left, Frank R. Murray became
sergeant. An excellent officer he was and
a very successful one in the detection of
crime. He was out of the service for some
years but later rejoined. James Maitland-
Dougall who afterwards became Govern-
ment Agent at Duncan was constable for
that district. Fred Heal was in charge of
the Saanich district and Angus M. Ego who
later was for a year or so at Lillooet was at

It was customary at this period to have an official
attached to the Superintendent's Office at Vic-
toria with the rank of sergeant—only rank of
its kind on the Force. The sergeant acted as
chief of the office staff and his duties were
purely of an administrative nature. Chief con-
stables were in charge of the 14 or more police
districts, reporting direct to the superintendent.

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