Ernest Gibson, 102; Last Survivor of Northwest Mounted Police Unit
Ernest Henry James Gibson, 102, honored in recent years as the last surviving member of the Royal Northwest Mounted Police, died Jan. 20 in Comox on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, of pneumonia and complications from a broken pelvis.
Gibson joined the force in 1919, one year before it merged with the Dominion Police to become the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. He served in the Port Arthur-Fort William area, now Thunder Bay, Ontario, for more than three years. His police career on horseback was cut short when he was shot in a knee while making an arrest.
Known as “Gib,” he was born in South Africa, where his father was an electrical engineer for a diamond mining company.
The family fled to Alberta, Canada, during the Boer War. During World War II, Gibson served four years in the Canadian army, and then spent most of his adult life running a dairy farm.
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