True and Fascinating Canadian History
Vet of the Month: July 2008
Special Constable Vital Thomas,
& Reg.#9951, Constable Frederick Rhodes
Many years ago, a young Constable Vickers served at Fort Rae, North West Territories. He listened to a story told by his friend, an elder Native Special Constable, who undertook tremendous efforts to save the life of one of our Regular Members. The story is remarkable, tragic and sad, and well worth the retelling.
In July 2008, we honour two deceased members of the Force; S/Cst. Vital Thomas and Cst. Frederick Rhodes. The author of our story is House of Commons Sergeant-at-Arms and retired RCMP Chief Superintendent Kevin Vickers.
Fort Rae, NWT was and remains a busy detachment with many incidents of violent crime to resolve. I quickly became enamoured with the Dog Rib Indians whose traditional way of life has been dramatically impacted by white society.
A tragic story follows as recalled by 0.1784, C/Supt. Kevin M. Vickers (Rt'd)
Vital Thomas was a native Special Constable, who lived in the community, and was very much everyone's grandfather. He was 82 years of age when I met him as a young Constable. He had an incredible presence, a grace if you will, dignified, gentlemanly, with so much class. His thick hair was silver and he spoke eloquently.
One evening in desperation, I summoned his assistance to guard at the Detachment. During the course of the evening, he related an incredible story regarding his attempt to save a young Mountie's life in 1926.
Constable Frederick Rhodes had returned to Fort Rae with his dog team after a several day patrol to other communities. He assigned Vital the task of securing and feeding his dogs.
Vital was attending to the animals, Cst. Rhodes entered the Detachment. There were coal embers still glowing in the stove and to revive the fire, Cst. Rhodes would have poured kerosene onto them. For whatever reasons, the stove exploded igniting Cst. Rhodes clothing and the Detachment on fire.
Vital having observed smoke coming from the Detachment, ran to the rescue of Cst. Rhodes. He was able to enter the burning Detachment and drag the Constable to safety. Vital observed however Cst. Rhodes suffered incredible burns.
Vital realized that time was of the essence. He re-harnessed fresh dogs and prepared his sled to transport Cst. Rhodes to Old Fort Rae and then across Great Slave Lake to Fort Smith, which he knew was the nearest location to find a doctor. This was a distance of more than 300 kilometres.
Vital advised me he wasted no time, and being young and strong, he was able to travel a great distance across the lake on his first day. Miraculously, he kept young Cst. Rhodes alive, stopping from time to time to tend to his burns and pain. But fate would be unkind. A severe blizzard began out on the frozen ice of Great Slave Lake, and Vital was forced to make camp with his patient. He laid beside Cst. Rhodes to keep him warm.
The next morning, the weather had cleared. Vital continued on his journey and once again made great headway towards Fort Smith. Unfortunately, once again, the weather worsened and at the end of the second day, Vital was forced to stop once again. During the course of the second night on the winter ice, Cst. Frederick Rhodes passed away. I will never forget Vital's wordsat this point in his story. I was sad for him!!
Vital dutifully brought Cst. Rhodes' corpse back to Fort Rae where he was buried. During my stay in Fort Rae, each spring, I was required to attend Cst. Rhodes' grave sight. I recall that we had problems with the grave sight as Lake Marion would rise during the spring and flood over that part of the cemetery. This unacceptable situation was later addressed where Cst. Rhodes' coffin was re-interred to higher grounds.
Cst. Rhodes was born in England and came to Canada to become a member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. His service in Canada's far north has contributed to the unshakeable reputation of Canada's national police force.
But let us never forget the tremendous debt we owe to Canada's Aboriginal people, in aiding our forefathers to carry out their duties. Constable Frederick Rhodes and Special Constable Vital Thomas, you are the reason I forever will be proud that I had the tremendous privilege for being a Mounted Policeman.
A 29-year veteran of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), Kevin Vickers joined the House of Commons as Director of Security Operations in June, 2005. He brings to the position a wealth of experience in and knowledge of safety and security matters.
During his 29-year career with the RCMP, Mr. Vickers held positions of increasing responsibility and scope, including District Commander, Acadian Peninsula and Director General, National Contract Policing Branch. He also served as an Aide-de-Camp for the Lieutenant Governor of New Brunswick.
Mr. Vickers is the recipient of the Queen's Jubilee Medal, the Canada 125 Medal and the RCMP Long Service Medal, and has been recognized by the Community of Burnt Church for outstanding service to their community and by the United States Drug Enforcement Agency for his 'Outstanding Contribution to Drug Enforcement.'
I want to express my appreciation to Kevin also for his support of ww.rcmpgraves.com
Reporting from Fort Healy,
J. J. Healy
July 23, 2008
