Charles Sydney Harper (~1881 - 1922)

Sergeant Charles Sydney Harper was born in England in 1881 and joined the North-West Mounted Police in 1900. He was posted to Medicine Hat, Alberta and promoted to Staff Sergeant after a transfer to the Peace River division. He took a discharge from the force in 1915 and went overseas during the First World War with the 138th Battalion Canadian Expeditionary Force under the command of Yukoner Lieutenant-Colonel Robert Belcher. Wounded and gassed, he was invalided to England for treatment and discharged. In 1917, he re-joined the Royal Canadian Mounted Police force, arrived in the Yukon the next year, and was posted to the newly created sub-district of Mayo in mid-winter 1922. He died that year at the Whitehorse Hospital while travelling outside for medical treatment. Sergeant Harper was the founder of the Great War Veterans’ Association in Dawson which grew to become the local Canadian Legion.¹⁾