TRANSCRIPT

Went to the 'New' Fort, Toronto, with the intention of enlisting in the North West Mounted Police three troops, of which were then in process of organizing for the purpose of augmenting the three troops, which had, in the fall of 1873, already proceeded, via the 'Dawson' Route as far West as lower 'Stone' Fort Garry on the Red River. Colonel George Arthur French, the Commissioner of the Force, and my father had served together in the Royal Artillery of the British Imperial Army, and the Colonel at once informed my father in downtown Toronto of my actions and whereabouts. Father lost no time in coming post haste to interview the Colonel, with the view of preventing my enlistment, but after a rather stormy argument between us he arranged with the Colonel to take me on as a Trumpeter for a period of no more than six months. And so I am now a member of the North West Mounted Police at the age of fifteen years.

Narrated by Kris Nygren