This timeline is the result of many years of research and international collaboration by the History & Archives Section within Countess Mountbatten’s Own Legion of Frontiersmen. The author’s intentions for producing this document are: first, to honour these forgotten Canadians who dedicated themselves to Crown and Country; and second, to leave a “paper trail” about Canada’s often para-military Legion of Frontiersmen. The specific sources and references are available from the author and via the University of Alberta’s Libraries.

The History & Archives Section invites referenced critique, correction and/or corroboration of the information presented.

Researchers should note that there are other online and published sources that include often- repeated inaccuracies; therefore, please also refer to Geoffrey A. Pocock’s Outrider of Empire, (University of Alberta Press, 2008) for accurate information, as well as this website.

History and Archives Section has enabled research and the recovery of the almost lost story of the Legion of Frontiersmen. H&A members are aware that there is more information to be found. Section members contributing years of effort to this timeline are from United Kingdom, New Zealand, Malta and Canada. A substantial digital photographic archive is maintained by Dean Bruckshaw of British Columbia.

Terminology:

The reader should understand these terms or concepts:

• Command refers to a unit that reports to Imperial HQ, and was usually a size incorporating squadrons. “Squadron” usually refers to a body that is composed of four “Troops”. In 1916 a document registered with the Alberta provincial government prescribes “Command” status as requiring a numerical strength of more than 64 Frontiersmen. A Command was composed of Sub-units or Troops.
• King’s (or Queen’s) Commission is both a document and the authority to command men in the Sovereign’s military forces. Many with “commissions” have served “in the ranks” as Frontiersmen or NCOs. As a courtesy and as an acknowledgement, the commissioned officer status may be shown in brackets. Example follows: Frontiersman (Colonel) John Smith or Frtn. (Col.) John Smith.
• Civil Commission was both a document and an acknowledgement from Legion of Frontiersmen Imperial Headquarters to assume a Legion Officer’s responsibility for his unit. It has no official governmental status, although it appears that in the early years of the Legion this “civil commission” was accorded some social status. A surviving copy is in the Nelson BC Archives.
• Rank is an organizational platform used by the Legion of Frontiersmen and it is based upon the Imperial era British Army. Unique to the Legion of Frontiersmen are the traditions of elected officers (and NCOs in small units) and equality in the Mess and off duty.
• Officer status in particular must be clearly designated to the public with the prefix “Legion” or the suffix “LF”. Examples follow: Legion Captain John Smith or Captain (LF) John Smith. Today NCOs should also follow the same pattern of identifying themselves, although this was not a common practice early on.
• Senior Officers (Major and above) were not generally acceptable in the Legion under its greatest Chief Executive Officer, Lt. Col. D.P. Driscoll DSO. The officer rank of Legion Captain was usually the highest Legion rank allotted to a Frontiersman who did not have the King’s Commission with the substantive military rank of Major or higher. This is relevant today, as rarely do LF squadrons have the numeric strength to warrant senior officers for management.
• Trooper has often been used to describe the beginning rank within the Legion.
• Legionaire (sic) has been used especially before World War 2 (1939) to describe a member of the Legion of Frontiersmen.
• Frontiersman (and also Frontierswoman) is the ONLY TRUE RANK within the Legion of Frontiersmen. In the 1930s the Air Commands of the Legion differentiated themselves as “”Air Frontiersmen”. All ranks and positions defer to the legally constituted authorities of the Crown /nation and its Armed Forces.
• Frtn. is the abbreviation used in this paper for the status of Frontiersman.

Early Organizational Structure:

Officers - The Legion of Frontiersmen was established early in 1905 and became mainly composed of men who had seen service in South Africa, particularly in the 1899-1902 war. It soon became a quasi-military body and as such the military’s hierarchical organization was both fitting and appealing to the membership. Frontiersmen understood that the officers of this unique organization were to be elected and that a central Headquarters carried out administrative functions. A review of early historical sources makes it very clear that pending adequate numeric strength (64 -70 persons), a rank of Legion “Captain” was the designation available by election. Majors and Colonels did exist but they appear to have usually been Commissioned Officers of His/Her Majesty’s forces with those substantive officer ranks.

Lieutenant-Colonel D.P. Driscoll, DSO the Chief Executive Officer of the Legion of Frontiersmen in 1913 makes this notable statement:

“The Chief Executive Officer desires to call attention to the practice recently indulged in by the members of some sub-units of giving ranks such as Lieutenant-Colonel and Major to men whom they are desirous of honouring. This is exceedingly ridiculous and would soon ruin the Legion. We have no right to adopt or confer such ranks, and thereby prostitute these sacred titles which officers earn after many years of service in the Army, and which are only conferred by His Gracious Majesty our King on the recommendation of the War Office.”

This point about officer status requires review as the current Legion of Frontiersmen, while still using the traditional military platform, has apparently turned its back on the original concept regarding the assignment of senior officer ranks.

Legion Structure - In 1916 the Calgary Command did register the Legion of Frontiersmen (Canada) with the Alberta provincial government. In doing so, they outlined the Legion’s organizational structure as follows:

“The smallest unit is the troop and consists of 12 to 24 men, an N.C.O. (Troop Serg.) and a “Troop Leader” (Lieut.). Four such troops (i.e. 64 men, 4 N.C.O.’s and 4 Lieut.s compose a Squadron, with a Serg./Major and a “Squadron Commander (Capt.). A Command is composed of 2 to 4 such Squadrons under a “Commandant” with an Adjutant and R.S.M. to assist him. If a Command has over 200 active members mounted, or over 400 infantry, the O.C. ranks as Chief Commdt. (Lt.Col.), but otherwise as a Sub-Commdt. (Major).”

Further, It is stated that peacetime units will be organized on the basis of Mounted Infantry regiments of minimum strength, the exceptions being specialized units like Maritime Branch and Intelligence units.

Canada’s Legion of Frontiersmen Timeline 1904 – 1929:

1904 - The Legion of Frontiersmen was founded in London and traces this to 26 December 1904 when a letter in British National newspapers suggested an organization to organize Imperial campaign veterans, adventurers, patriots and men with experience of in the world’s frontier regions. The Legion was to act as an irregular force of mounted rifles, scouts, guides, pioneers (military labourers and craftsmen with fighting ability) and especially intelligence gatherers. This new Legion of Frontiersmen was to react as a ready force until the regular Imperial forces could be deployed to the regions; or to immediately enlist if called upon. The Founder was author, adventurer, and former North West Mounted Policeman, Roger Pocock. A lack of status and rank as a gentleman in Edwardian society impeded his efforts and acceptability. He would eventually receive a commission as an older officer assigned to a WW1 Labour battalion and become an Acting Captain. In many sources this captaincy is wrongly attributed to his work as a scout in the earlier South Africa war where the rank he achieved was corporal of Irregular Scouts.

1905 – Lord Lonsdale hosted the Inaugural Dinner on the 10 April 1905.

1905 - Roger Pocock’s April 15th 1905 detailed correspondence with the Royal North West Mounted Police (stamped “Office of The Comptroller April 29 1905 R.N.W.M.P.”) outlines the Legion scheme. He received a wish for success combined with a mildly negative comment about the romantic nature of the scheme. Pocock replied May 18 (stamped May 29 1905 by RNWMP) informing of support from Lord Lonsdale, The Earl of Onslow, Prince Louis of Battenberg of the Admiralty, “and several of the Civil Forces, Municipal Police, Fire Brigades, Commissionaires, Salvage Corps, rural Police, etc. here are already won, besides such units over seas as the Federated Malay State Volunteers, and the army of the Sultan of Jahore.”

1905 – Albert Dean Willcocks the “Organiser for Canada” of Montreal wrote to the RNWMP about the Legion of Frontiersmen scheme. In the reply from the RNWMP it states: “I do not think the ranchers and settlers of the North West would become willing to become members of the Legion and pay $5.00 per annum for the privilege.” The reply further states “it would be difficult to keep up interest in the Legion”. Finally the respondent for the RNWMP says, “All that could be accomplished is actually in existence to-day in our north West, except the sentimental idea of being a link in a chain of Frontiersmen throughout the British Empire.” Little else is known about Albert Dean Willcocks (Albert Dean-Willcocks); however, his and other organizers’ efforts moved on to great success, despite this first mildly negative response, culminating with official RCMP affiliation in 1936.

1906 –’07 - After Stanley Winther Caws was killed in action in WW1, the Regina newspaper reported: “Another noted member of the Legion was Lieutenant S.W. Caws. He was the first organizer of the first command of the Legion in Canada, and was the first commandant officer located at Lac St. Anne, Alberta.”

1906–’07 - Stanley Winther Caws reportedly one of Canada’s first LF Commandants is recorded as Caws, Cawes, and Caus. He was a tattooed Boer War veteran and “remittance-man” often the “black sheep” paid by the family to stay out of England, who formed the first Legion of Frontiersmen unit in Alberta and possibly Canada, enlisted 1914 in the 19th Alberta Dragoons in Strathcona (now part of Edmonton), transferred to the Royal Flying Corps and was killed in action.

Extracts from a regional history book describe Caws and the Legion of Frontiersmen:

• “After the Boer war 1899-1902, numbers of Englishmen who had taken part in the campaign came out to Canada, and our Municipality received her share of Boer War Veterans.”
• “Buller Butler and Stanley Caws were in the country west of Lac Ste. Anne in 1906, and may have put in squatter’s stakes on the land in the Stanger area where they later filed on homesteads, but had no shacks or houses up until well into 1907”.
• A Dutch pioneer settler stated, “I often met Caws and Butler, our nearest neighbors for a long time. In those days 12 or 14 miles was very close.”
• Caws’ kindness and generosity was illustrated when he secretly paid boarding costs of a newly arrived young Englishman who couldn’t manage the rough life of a pioneer. He paid and instructed the host to have the young man do chores for boarding costs and to let the young man feel that he was earning his board. In a fit of anger the paid host told the sensitive young man that was being supported by Caws’ generosity. Sadly, the tenderfoot committed suicide.
• “A club was formed by the young men around Lac Ste. Anne – homesteaders, as well as packers, surveyors and freighters. They called themselves the “Legion of Frontiersmen” and met together for good fellowship. On occasion they came as far as Cause’s (Caws’) shack at Stanger for a meeting. They built a hall at Lac Ste. Anne as a club room and for parties and dances. Many years later, the Frontiersmen had settled down on their farms, after some were killed in the First Great War, and others more transient had departed, the hall was bought by the resident priest after the log church burned, and it is the Present Roman Catholic Church at Lac Ste. Anne.”
• “The first public hall was the one built by the Legion of Frontiersmen in Lac Ste. Anne in 1910 or 1911.”
• The regional history book comments that Caws and two friends initially came to Lac Ste. Anne from a district called Rabbit Hill south of Edmonton, now within of today’s large city. When they came out in winter of 1906-07 the snow was three feet deep at all times and heavily crusted by Chinook winds making it difficult for horses to paw for food. As well, horses were eaten by grizzly bears. At 11:00 a.m. on New Year’s Day 1907 the Hudson Bay Company trading post recorded a temperature of 68 degrees below zero Fahrenheit.

1907 – J.V.E. Carpenter is noted as the Organizing Officer in Edmonton Alberta and he also becomes a captain in the newly formed 101st Edmonton Fusiliers of 1908. Northern Command (UK) documents indicate that 19 Organizing Officers were active from Yukon Territory, the west coast, the Kootenay region, the prairies to Thunder Bay, Ontario.

Author’s note: Of the 19 Organizing Officers a very interesting figure was Judge W.B. Gray (Buckskin Billie). Born as William Brigham in 1852, he took his stepfather’s surname and later in Canada he was also known as Buckskin Billie. He trained in England to be a doctor and went to finish his studies in Winnipeg. He became fascinated with the idea of being a cowboy and abandoned medical studies to become a rancher at Pine Creek near Calgary. After different ranching experiences in Alberta he settled in Stettler and became the first Town Clerk then eventually Police Magistrate. “Buckskin Billie” a 1907 Legion of Frontiersmen Organizing Officer, later the respected Judge Gray, died at age 94 in 1947. Unfortunately, the provincial archival records do not mention any role as an Organizing Officer of the Legion of Frontiersmen.

1907 – According to Peter Gunn MPP, Stanley Winther Caws of Lac Ste. Anne was the first commandant in Canada. Years later, In a 1916 speech to Edmonton Command LF, Peter Gunn MPP (Member of Provincial Parliament) stated that he was the first Frontiersman to enroll in Canada with C.H. Dunn of Wabamun being the second.

Other information provided states that Colonel Bates (older brother of Captain G.R. Bates OBE, JP) is reported to have started the first Frontiersmen unit in Vancouver (?). A receipt for annual dues was made out to A.E. Booth of Vancouver dated October 07, 1907. This information is provided in a letter dated November 14, 1991 signed by P.G. Squarebriggs, on BC Command letterhead, Legion of Frontiersmen of the Commonwealth.

It is noted in 1912 that a Captain S. Bates of Aspen Grove BC is Officer Commanding, Comox District, Vancouver Island.

One of the better documented early Frontiersmen units was under E.C. Wragge the Organizing Officer of Nelson BC, located in the rugged Kootenay region. His Civil Commission, Number 29, from LF headquarters is dated 08 April 1907.