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Ex-Commissioner John Hugh

McMullin Passes On

LIEUT.-COL. J. H. McMULLIN, ex-Com-
missioner of the B. C. Provincial Police,
beloved by the force he once commanded,
passed away at his home in Victoria on the

The late Lieut.-Col. J. H. McMullin

—Courtesy of Victoria Times

morning of May 11th. He was in his 75th
year, and had been a prominent figure in
B. C.’s official life for nearly half a century.

Born at Madras, India, son of Irish-born
Col. John McMullin of the Indian Army,
young Hugh McMullin was educated at
Haileybury. Commissioned to the East Sur-
rey Regiment, he transferred after three
yeazs to the Third Hussars, serving w’th
that crack cavalry regiment until 1893 when
he resigned his commission to come out to
Western Canada. He settled in the Okan-
agan, but with the outbreak of the South
African war he joined Strathcona’s Horse
and served in Cape Colony, Orange Free
State, Natal and the Transvaal. He re
ceived the Queen’s South African Medal

with four clasps.

Returning to British Columbia, he joined
the B. C. Police in October, 1901, and was
assigned to Cascade City. Later, while
serving with the police at Fernie, he was
offered, and accepted, the appointment of
Government Agent at that point. He after-
wards returned to the Police with the rank
of Inspector (equivalent to the present day
rank of Assistant Commissioner), and dur-
ing the next year he made a complete survey
of the police organization in British Colum-
bia for Superintendent F. S. Hussey.

In 1910 he was appointed Government
Agent at Prince Rupert, a post he held with
distinction for thirteen years.

Maintaining a keen interest in military
matters (he had been lieutenant and captain
in the Kootenay Rifles and major in the 68th
Militia Regiment), he took charge of north-

Page Two

ern recruiting during World War I, and
was subsequently rewarded by command of
a post-war unit, the British Columbia Regi-
ment, which commemorated the 102nd Bat-
talion, C. E. F.

In 1923, Col. McMullin was appointed
Superintendent of Provincial Police (the
title afterwards being changed to Commis-
sioner), and he immediately put into effect
plans for the complete re-organization of
the force he so much admired.

A new act, sponsored by the then Attor-
ney-General, Mr. A. M. Manson, brought
into being many important administrative
changes and the force, streamlined and re-
vitalized, commenced a new chapter in its
long history of public service.

Among the important advances made was
the redistribution of police administrative
areas, the change to semi-military ranks, in-
creased pay, the establishment of a central
Criminal Record Bureau, and, as time went
on, the innovation of a highway patrol sys-
tem, and a police radio network (first of its
kind-in Canada). Always alive to new
ideas to further the work of the force, Com-
missioner McMullin overhauled the marine
section, and with the adjunct of standard
diesel and radio-equipped patrol boats,
brought this branch of the service to a new
pitch of efficiency. His approval of marks-
manship qualifications for all ranks was one
of his final contributions to the force’s eff
ciency.

The grand old man of the police retired
on pension through ill-health in April, 1939,

ai

SS ST ee

Coffin leaving St. Mary's Church, Oak Bay, after service. The Rev. Archdeacon A.

and since then had been living quietly ir
retirement in one of Victoria’s suburbs. Hi.
spacious home on Beach drive was alway.
open to policemen old and young, and in
they felt the atmosphere that made Johr
Hugh McMullin a great public figure.

A shrewd judge of human nature, thé
“Colonel” was quick to scent a false note
and, true to his Irish parentage, equally
quick to forgive the erring. He hada mora’
code which was both an inspiration and ar
example to all who served under h‘m, anc
his kindly personality will be missed for a
long time to come.

The sympathy of the force is extended
to his sister, Miss C. M. McMullin, and a
son and daughter resident in Victoria.

The death in action of another son, Ser-
geant-Obeerver Francis McMullin, was re-
ported only a few months ago in the casualty
lists of the Royal Canadian Air Force.

THE NEW YORK TIMES of January 4,
1943, reported that London’s police district,
700 miles square and containing 8,000,000
people, had 2500 fewer cases of serious crime
in the third year of the war than in the last
full year of peace. There were only twelve
armed hold-ups in 1942—a remarkably small
number in view of London’s large floating
population with its mixture of nationalities
from war-stricken Europe. The people have
behaved so well that early this year the
police were able to revert from the war-
time system of patrols, imposed at the outset
of the war, to normal peace-time practices.
The percentage of crimes solved in 1942
was one of the highest on record. Of thirty-
nine capital crimes committed in the metro-
politan area during the year, only five re-
mained unsolved. Two men committed
eleven of the thirty-nine crimes.

E. de L. Nunns

officiating. Pall-bearers: Inspr. Robert Owens, Sub-Inspr. J. P. M. Hannah, Inspr. C. Clark, Sgt.
C. C. Jacklin, Senior Clerk F. Grimshaw and Det. D. Shand.

THE SHOULDER STRAP