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Create AccountGeorge Randolph Pearkes, soldier, politician (b at Watford, Eng 26 Feb 1888; d at Victoria 30 May 1984). He immigrated to Canada in 1906, homesteaded in Alberta, and then joined the RN WMP. He enlisted in the 2nd Canadian Mounted
Charles Gavan Power, "Chubby," lawyer, politician (b at Sillery, Qué 18 Jan 1888; d at Québec C 30 May 1968). Power was seriously wounded in WWI and won the Military Cross for gallantry. He denounced military "brass hats" ever after.
Sir Edward Sabine, soldier, scientist (b at Dublin, Ire 14 Oct 1788; d at Richmond, Eng 26 June 1883). He fought along the St Lawrence River in Upper and Lower Canada in 1813-14, and then, within the army, went on to a distinguished career in science.
Constable Robert McBeath stopped a drunk driver on Granville Street in the wee hours of an October morning in 1922. It was routine police work for the twenty-four year-old constable, but it would cost him the life he had risked just a few years before, when he earned the Victoria Cross at the Somme.
From 1991 to the present, members of the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) and civilian police forces, including the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), have served in peace operations in the Balkans. Their mission was to provide security and stability following the breakup of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Nearly 40,000 Canadians have served in the Balkans, and 23 CAF members died while deployed there.
Donald Stewart Ethell, colonel, Lieutenant Governor of Alberta (b at Vancouver 23 Jul 1937). Donald Ethell, a distinguished retiree of the ARMED FORCES, became Alberta's 17th Lieutenant Governor in May 2010. Ethell was born and raised on Canada's west coast.
In 1992–93, Canada contributed military forces to UNITAF, a United Nations–backed humanitarian mission in the African nation of Somalia. In 1993, Canadian soldiers from the now-defunct Airborne Regiment tortured and killed a Somali teenager named Shidane Arone. These and other violent abuses during the mission shocked Canadians and damaged the country’s international reputation. They also led to a public inquiry that revealed serious failures of leadership at the highest levels of the Canadian Armed Forces, kick-starting reforms aimed a professionalizing the officer corps.
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Douglas Jung, CM, OBC, politician, lawyer, soldier (born 25 February 1924 in Victoria, BC; died 4 January 2002 in Vancouver, BC). Douglas Jung was a member of Force 136, a group of Chinese Canadian soldiers who fought behind enemy lines in the Pacific theatre during the Second World War. After the war, Jung became a lawyer in British Columbia and was the first Chinese Canadian lawyer to appear before the BC Court of Appeal in 1955. On 10 June 1957, Douglas Jung was elected as the first Chinese Canadian member of Parliament.
William George (Billy) Barker, VC, fighter pilot, war hero, businessman (born 3 November 1894 in Dauphin, MB; died 12 March, 1930 in Ottawa, ON). One of Canada’s foremost First World War flying aces, Barker is, to date, the most highly decorated military serviceman in Canadian history.
William Maxwell Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook, financier, politician, author, publisher (b at Maple, Ont 25 May 1879; d at Cherkley, Mickleham, Eng 9 June 1964). The son of a Presbyterian minister, Beaverbrook later claimed that his religion lay at the root of his worldly success.
Sir Charles Hastings Doyle, soldier, administrator, lieutenant-governor of Nova Scotia (b at London, Eng 10 Apr 1804; d there 19 Mar 1883). Doyle played an important role in the politics and military affairs of Canada at the time of CONFEDERATION in 1867.
Edward Kielley (or Kielly), surgeon, naval officer (b at St John's c 1790; d there 8 Mar 1855).
Charles Vincent Massey, PC, CC, governor general 1952-59, historian, business executive, politician, diplomat, royal commissioner, patron of the arts (born 20 February 1887 in Toronto; died 30 December 1967 in London, England). Massey was the country’s first Canadian-born governor general. He helped create the Order of Canada in 1967, and as a champion of the arts in Canada laid the groundwork for the Canada Council, the National Library of Canada and the National Arts Centre.
Josué Dubois Berthelot de Beaucours, military officer, engineer, governor of Trois-Rivières and Montréal (b in France c 1662; d at Montréal 9 May 1750).
Kenneth Stuart, army officer (b at Trois-Rivières, Qué 9 Sept 1891; d at Ottawa 3 Nov 1945). Stuart graduated from RMC in 1911 and served with the Royal Canadian Engineers overseas 1915-18.
George Gleig, soldier, chronicler of the War of 1812 (b 20 Apr 1796 at Stirling, Scotland; d 9 Jul 1888).
Sir Frederick Gordon Guggisberg, soldier, governor (b at Galt, Ont 20 July 1869; d at Bexhill, Eng 21 Apr 1930). Commissioned in the Royal Engineers in 1889, he served first in Singapore, then at the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich, and as a surveyor in West Africa 1902-14.
William Neilson Hall, seaman (born 25 April 1829 in Horton Bluff [now Lockhartville], NS; died 25 August 1904 in Horton Bluff). William Hall was the first Black, the first Nova Scotian, and the first Canadian naval recipient of the Victoria Cross.
Ephrem A. Brisebois, soldier, mounted policeman, registrar of land titles (b at South Durham, Qué 7 Mar 1850; d at Minnedosa, Man 13 Feb 1890). He served briefly in the Union Army during the American Civil War, and from 1868-70 with the Canadian Pontifical ZOUAVES in Rome.
Acheson Gosford Irvine, soldier, police officer, prison warden (b at Québec C 7 Dec 1837; d there 9 Jan 1916). The third commissioner of the NWMP, Irvine's reputation was ruined by the North-West Rebellion.
