True and Fascinating Canadian History
The Mystery of the Mountie
Minus Any Money
by J. J. Healy
By all accounts, RCMP earn their salary. Not so in days of yore -- the days of the North West Mounted Police. A NWMP constable was paid perhaps .50 cents per diem. If lucky. Lodging benefits were harder to calculate as the NWMP slept under the stars. I mean, what need doth man have for a roof? Who doesn't enjoy a little drizzle while sleeping?
RCMP members are paid an annual salary today in accordance with federal Treasury Board guidelines. The salary paid to an RCMP constable is competitive to the salary paid to other constables in other Canadian police services. A compatible salary is paid to other ranks in the Force. In theory, that's how the RCMP get paid. But, does everyone get paid? Has anyone been overlooked?
An internal audit brings strangers in one's office. Air is in short supply. Coffee is not offered. An audit is akin to a tooth ache -- one would opt not to have one. It's no 'welcome party'. Auditors are supposed to catch irregularities. Pesky questions do get asked. Records dated many years ago are examined. Managers are called to task. Answers best be good. No, there's no need to sit.
Cover ups today are far less tolerated. More likely than not anything that smells will come to the attention of Parliament. Rightly so.
Do auditors catch every mistake -- every mouse? Apparently not. Is it possible that money can be diverted to another source? And salary dollars, has anyone has been overlooked from getting paid? Even innocently. Imagine a Mountie who's not been paid. In the Mystery of the Mountie Minus the Money, seems we have a man without a dime. Came to my attention from a good authority -- don't tell even a single soul -- my source this time is a person in the Mounties own family.
What more is my source willing to say? After all, she's never seen the money. More mystery to follow...
The Mystery of the 'Mountie Minus the Money' hinges on material written in a book titled 'I Married the Klondike.' by Laura Berton (nee Laura Beatrice Thompson). Laura Berton authored her book in 1954 and in her book she mentions that her husband, Francis George Berton was at one time in the Mounted Police (p.95).
Laura Berton's claim that her husband Francis George Berton served in the Force has stirred up the Mystery. To my knowledge, there are no official records of a Francis George Berton ever being in the RCMP. That is not to say, however, that Berton might have been under the employ of the RCMP, let's say, as a security guard, grounds keeper or some other work.
Mr. Reg Keatley, of Calgary and Friend of the Force found the Registration of Death of Francis George Berton. Berton was born in New Brunswick of French decent on December 12, 1871. His father was William Berton and William's wife was Lucy Berton (nee Fox) of the USA.
The Death Certificate lists Francis George Berton's occupation as: 'Retired: Recorder. Mining at Dawson, NWT'. Another reference by Charlene Porsild at(http://www.jrank.org/history/pages/6787/Laura-Berton.html)on the Internet lists Berton's occupation as a 'mining engineer'. Yet, there is no mention on the Death Certificate or in Porsild's notes of Berton having been employed in the Mounted Police.
Sometime after leaving the north, Berton moved with his wife (Laura Berton) to Vancouver, BC. He died in the Vancouver General Hospital on August 29, 1945. Soon afterwards Berton was cremated and buried in Vancouver.
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Whether or not Francis George Berton was ever in the Mounted Police is open to Mystery. Nevertheless, Burton led an exciting life in the north and over this life time, was employed in an unusual and very wide variety of different jobs.
In her 1954 book, I Married the Klondike'. Laura Berton lists many of her husband's occupations. Laura Berton says; "By the time I met him he had done almost everything. He had washed dishes for a thousand men and cooked for a thousand more. He had been in the Mounted Police and had washed the skull of a corpse that had been recovered from the river from one of the Territory's most brutal murders. He had shovelled gravel into other men's sluice boxes for twelve hours a day, seven days a week until every muscle cried out for mercy.
He had been a school principal, a dentist assistant, a stroker, a private tutor, a logger, a political scrutineer, a dredge-man, a watchman, a bill collector and a magazine agent."
Apparently few of the jobs which he performed ever paid Breton any money, for Laura Berton saw precious little of it. And, it's not likely that Berton would have gained much wealth even if he had been a member of the RCMP.
Berton's wife Laura also tells her readers about Berton's lack of money. She says; "Frank is the cleverest man I know," a friend of mine once remarked. "He can do anything and he can make anything -- except money." This was quite true. He could build a loom, design a pattern and weave the cloth for it; he could grind a mirror to the proper focal length, construct a reflecting telescope from it and gaze at the starts all night; he could build anything from a child's lamp to a twenty-six-foot power launch; he could identify three hundred species of Yukon wild flowers and reel off all their Latin names; he could read Beowulf in the original Anglo-Saxon, Homer in the original Greek and Tacitus in the original Latin; he could mush fifty miles in thirteen hours in fifty-below weather and he could cook anything from fluffy sourdough biscuits to marshmallows. But he literally never gave money a thought.
When he had it he spent it at once on books or gadgets that intrigued him. When he didn't have it he got on perfectly cheerfully without it. The stars, moon, rocks, trees, flowers, animals, the splitting of the atom, the theory of relativity -- for the study of any of these he would willingly stay awake all night, and often did so. But the mere making of money was something in which he could not get interested. Perhaps this was the thing about him that attracted me most" (p.95)
So goes the Mystery of Francis George Berton.
At the moment, there is little evidence that he had every been in the RCMP as no records exist of his employment. Absolutely no harm done. Due to his wide intersts in the north, Berton likely met many, many RCMP members and he shared many aspects of living in the north with them. Berton and RCMP were more than likely friends. As well, Berton's son wrote extensively about Canadian history in which the NWMP and the RCMP took an active role.
There are a few things that come to mind about the Berton, the man; first, his tremendous interest in all things around him. He was facinated in and of the world. Secondly, he obviously self taught himself in many aspects of wildlife and handy tricks. Berton somehow survied the terrible winterw of the north and at the same time took care of his wife and family -- with little or no money. Laura Bertn was a school teacher. To his credit, Berton was not in life because of wealth. It seems that he was very unselfish. Instead of wealth, Berton was deeply interested in all other aspects of life's mysteries.
Oh, by the way, did I mention that Laura and Francis George Berton had a son. They named him Pierre Berton. Pierre Berton became one of Canada's favorites on TV's 'Front Page Challenge' and he was also one of Canada's greatest authors.
Perhaps, just perhaps, it was the son, Pierre Berton who made all the money?
Reporting from the Fort,
J. J. Healy
January 24, 2011
Source:
Berton, Laura. (1954). I Married the Klondike. McClelland and Stewart: 1967. Toronto, Ontario
