Yukon who is who

Howard Hooper Cronkhite (1898 - 1949)

Howard Cronkhite was born in Perry Sound County, Ontario. He was employed in a bank at Lethbridge, Alberta before he enlisted in October 1915 to serve in the First World War. He was in France, Belgium, and Germany with the First Canadian Machine Gun Corps. Cronkite was demobilized in May 1919 and received the General Service and Victory Medals. He joined the Royal North-West Mounted Police in February 1920 and, after three months, was promoted to Corporal. In July 1922, he was transferred to Dawson, and in February 1924 he was transferred to Whitehorse. He was promoted to Sergeant in 1928 and that year he married Katherine Veronica Barton, a Victoria Order nurse working at the Dawson hospital. Cronkite was transferred to “E” Division in Vancouver in 1935 and played one of the background riders in the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film Rose Marie starring Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy. He also acted as a double for Nelson Eddy. Cronkite was promoted to sub-inspector in 1940 and inspector in 1942. He spent one year at Swift Current and was then transferred to “G” Division in Ottawa. [Or “H” Division in Whitehorse]¹⁾

A Whitehorse Men’s Hockey League was organized in December 1944 with President, Inspector H.H Cronkhite, RCMP; Vice-president, Mr. York Wilson, WP & YR; and Secretary Mike Nolan, RCMP.²⁾ A Whitehorse newspaper noted that Inspector Cronkhite left Whitehorse at the end of June 1848 when he was transferred to Ottawa.³⁾ Cronkhite was promoted to Superintendent in 1949, the year he died. In 1973, a mountain west of the Blackstone River was named Mount Cronkite in his honour.⁴⁾