George Arthur French

Major-General Sir George Arthur French, KCMG (19 June 1841 – 7 July 1921) served as the first Commissioner of the North-West Mounted Police, from October 18, 1873, to July 21, 1876.

George Arthur French was born at Roscommon, Ireland. He was educated at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and Woolwich and commissioned in the Royal Artillery in 1860.

In 1871, at the request of the Canadian government, he was sent to Canada as a military inspector, eventually becoming head of the School of Gunnery at Kingston, Ontario.

French was appointed to organize the NWMP (North-West Mounted Police) on its creation in 1873, and the next year he led the force on its famous march to the foothills of the Rockies.

French resigned in 1876 and returned to duty in the British Army, eventually attaining the rank of major-general. The organizational skills developed in Canada were used to establish local defence forces in India and Australia. In September 1883 he was appointed Commandant of the Queensland Local Forces with the local rank of colonel, and arrived in the colony on January 4, 1884. Colonel French married, in 1862, Janet Clarke, daughter of the late Robert Long Innes, formerly of the 37th Regiment. Colonel French retired in 1891, and returned to England.

When French retired in 1902 he received a knighthood and for the next 19 years much of his time was spent guarding the crown jewels in London, where he died in 1921.