Yukon who is who

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Arthur Blythe Thornthwaite (1901 - 1996)
	
Arthur Thornthwaite was born in County of Surry, England. He immigrated to Canada in 1919 and lived with his mother in Clayburn, near Abbotsford, British Columbia. He joined the Royal North-West Mounted Police in 1919 and was first stationed in Prince Rupert, then Hazelton, Prince George, and Telkwa. In 1924, he was transferred to Carmacks to replace Claude Tidd who was going out of the Yukon that year.((Yukon Archives, “Arthur Thornthwaite.” Biographical Sketch for Acc 83/22 and Acc 88/100.)) 
His patrol area was immense and in 1926 he and Corporal Cronkite, of Whitehorse travelled as far as Wellesley Lake.((//The Whitehorse Star// (Whitehorse), 19 February 1926.)) While in Carmacks, Thornthwaite investigated the disappearance of Charlie Smith from his cabin twenty-seven miles below Fort Selkirk, and the murder of Smith by Harry Davis in February 1926.((Bruce Batchelor, //Alaska Magazine,// January 1987: 26-29.))  
	
In 1926, Thornthwaite was promoted to Corporal and posted to Rampart House on the Yukon/Alaska border. He bought his supplies at Fort Yukon, Alaska and there he courted his future wife Helen, a nurse at the Hudson Stuck Memorial Hospital. They had travelled into the Yukon on the same steamer, train, and Yukon River sternwheeler in 1924. They were married in 1927.((Yukon Archives, “Arthur Thornthwaite.” Biographical Sketch for Acc 83/22 and Acc 88/100.))
	
In 1928, the community at Rampart House moved up the Porcupine River to Old Crow. Thornthwaite, Sidney May, and the police carpenter Special Constable Fox from Dawson, built a new log detachment building.((RCMP 1929 Annual Report, 1930: 55; Minnie Kirk, "Old Crow" in //Scarlet & Gold,// 57th Edition, 1975: 85.)) The Rampart House and Old Crow detachment patrolled 17,500 square miles. The detachment was two members of the force and a special constable guide-interpreter.((Yukon Archives, Arthur Thornthwaite fonds, Acc# 83/22 Album 3.)) 

In 1932, Thorthwaite participated in the manhunt to capture the Mad Trapper, Albert Johnson. In 1933, he was transferred out of the Yukon to postings in southern British Columbia. He retired from the Force in 1947 after twenty-eight years of service, and then worked for Loomis Armoured Car until 1964. After Helen died in 1956, Thornthwaite married Arlene Kirkpatrick who he had known at Telkwa thirty-four years before. Arlene died in 1981 and Thornthwaite married Rite Mallett. Thornthwaite died in Victoria, British Columbia. The Arthur Thornthwaite fonds at Yukon Archives contains about 788 photographs and other material related to his police postings in Yukon communities.((Yukon Archives, “Arthur Thornthwaite.” Biographical Sketch for Acc 83/22 and Acc 88/100.))