Ric Hall’s Photo Corner
March 18, 2015
For this week, Ric Hall has provided us some recent and old photographs of Force Sergeant Majors.
Throughout the history of the Force, the rank of Sergeant Major as served as the most senior non-commissioned officer position. Traditionally, these rank positions have the responsibility of ensuring of discipline, dress, drill, deportment and ceremonial compliance within their geographical areas.
Photograph of Force’s first Regimental Sergeant Major Arthur Griesbach (Reg.#1).
Photograph of NWMP Sergeant Major Robert Belcher (Reg.#13). (Source of photo – RCMP Veterans Association – Vancouver Division’s Photo Collection).
Photograph of RNWMP Sergeant Arthur Richardson (Reg.#3058) taken at Fort Battleford Saskatchewan. Arthur was the first member of the Force to win the Victoria Cross. (Source of photo – RCMP Historical Collections Unit – “Depot” Division).
Photograph of RCMP Burnaby Detachment’s Staff Sergeant Major John Buis (Source of photo – Ric Hall’s Photo Collection).
2013 – Photograph of “Depot” Division’s Sergeant Major Francois Desfosses (Reg.#31975) (Source of photo – Sheldon Boles).
1878 – Photograph of Sergeant Major Joseph Francis (Reg. #7) of the North West Mounted Police. He was one of the only Force members who prior to joining the Force who participated in the Charge of the Light Brigade in 1854 during the Crimea War. (Source of photo – RCMP Historical Collections Unit – “Depot” Division)
1917 – Photograph of “Depot” Sergeant Major Ernest Turner (Reg.#4692) (Reg.#4692) (Source of photo – Ric Hall’s Photo Collection).
September 2014 – Photograph of “E” Division members (left to right): SSM Andrew Martin (Ridge Meadows Detachment), S/M Dave Hall (“E” Division HQ), SSM Aaron Paradis (Surrey Detachment) and SSM John Buis (Burnaby Detachment). Members were participating in the BC Police Officer Memorial Service in Abbotsford BC (Source of photo – Ric Hall’s Photo Collection).
Photograph of RCMP Sergeant Major Darren Campbell who is now the the Force’s Corps Sergeant Major in Ottawa (Source of photo – Ric Hall’s Photo Collection).
February 26, 2015 – Photograph of RCMP Sergeant Majors standing at the grave of the unknown soldier in Ottawa (Source of photo – Ric Hall’s Photo Collection).
Ric closes this webpage with an extract from the April 1941 edition of the RCMP Quarterly entitled “Sergeant Major’s Prayer:”
Lord of the realm of Limbo,
God of all the souless men,
Set me free from your bondage;
And make me human again.
Soften my raucous bellow,
That sets me as one apart;
Return the least of my virtues,
Please give me back my heart.
Let me look at my fellows
And see them as flesh and blood;
Not as brands from the burning,
To be quenched by a vocal flood.
Free me from seeing damnation
In a visible spot of dust;
A dull unshining button
Or the faintest sign of rust.
Let not a grimy boot-heel
Act as a gauge of worth;
Or a crease in an issue-blanket
Be the foulest crime on earth.
Blind me to scanning pass-lists
When the clock us half past ten;
To know of those who find surcease
In taking pleasure of men.
Give me a sense of values
To see as a place of doom,
And not as a seat of virtue,
the Division orderly-room.
Make me the Sergeant Major
That I prayed a man could be,
When someone else was “Herod”
And the guy in the ranks was me.
