page_title: Aylesworth Bowen Perry
section_title: Career
hierarchical_section_title: Aylesworth Bowen Perry / Career
context_page_description: Aylesworth Bowen Perry, C.M.G. served as the sixth Commissioner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, from August 1, 1900, to March 31, 1923.
context_section_description: He was commissioned as a lieutenant in the Royal Engineers. When the Royal Engineer's medical staff determined that Perry's leg was not yet properly healed, his commanding officer advised him to return to Canada. He subsequently resigned his commission. He worked as a surveyor in what is now northern Ontario.  From 1881 to 1882 Perry worked with the Geological Survey of Canada in Ottawa, Ontario, as a librarian.
  On January 24, 1882, he was appointed an inspector in the North-West Mounted Police. During the North-West Rebellion of 1885, he was appointed a major in the Canadian Militia, and received command of the second section of the Alberta Field Force. He led a march from Calgary, Alberta, to Edmonton, Alberta. While crossing the Red Deer River, he nearly died landing a tow rope attached to the raft carrying a field gun. Following the rebellion, he was appointed superintendent of the Prince Albert district, on August 1, 1885.
  Since game was disappearing and the incoming of the railways was rendering useless the occupation of freighting on the prairie he recommended that the Métis earn a living through farming, "The mass of the half-breed population must therefore turn their attention to other methods of making a living. They have no alternative: farming must become their occupation in earnest. The English and Scotch half-breeds have already done this successfully; but very few of French descent have yet made any real attempt at it." Perry continued, "As farming is the inevitable pursuit of the French half-breeds, all who are friendly to them should agree in urging and encouraging them to remain on their present holdings, so that they may at once face their destiny and ultimately obtain the position of a self-supporting people. They should be treated with patience and aided generously, remembering that it is not easy for white men possessing all the advantages of education and civilization to change their occupation. Can the half-breed hunter or freighter be expected to be more apt in adapting himself to change? It would be an astonishing thing if they quietly and quickly adapted themselves to the work of a farm on which success is only obtained by hard, patient and continuous labour." He concluded, "There is a tendency on the part of some to regard the problem of the future of these people as insolvable. Knowing their many sterling qualities I cannot despair, but believe their descendants will be prosperous and desirable citizens of our North-West Territory." As Superintendent, in command of the Prince Albert district in 1888, he praised the work of the missionaries amongst the Indians, "The hope of improvement in the Indian lies in the training of the rising generation, and it is to be hoped that before long the children will be taken in hand."
  He was in command at the Depot, Regina, from 1889 to 1897. While in Regina, he qualified in law and was called to the Bar of the North-West Territories.
  In 1897, he was given command of the Calgary district. A contingent under his command travelled to London, England, for Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee in 1897. He created a new North-West Mounted Police post at Vancouver. He was placed in command of the police in the Yukon in 1899. "When R.G. Beth remarked to me that it was generally looked on as rather a dangerous thing to let a body of men loose amid the temptations of a strange city, Perry replied: 'That has no bearing on these men, even though there was a saloon on every corner. Every man feels that the honour and good name of the force depend on his individual conduct, and so he can be trusted.'" 
  He was appointed Commissioner of the North-West Mounted Police from August 1, 1900, and served until his retirement on April 1, 1923. He served for nearly 23 years in office, and was the longest-serving commissioner of the RCMP. He found it difficult to get convictions in local courts for cattle-killers, mail-robbers and others since jurymen and others sympathized with the accused "I regret that convictions for the serious crimes were not secured against the guilty parties. Evi
caption: North-West Mounted Police (now RCMP) officers, Yukon, 1900, wearing the famous scarlet uniform that includes a flat-brimmed Stetson hat.
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