Yukon who is who

Philip Cartaret Hill Primrose (1864 – 1937)

Philip Primrose was born in Nova Scotia to parents Alexander and Elizabeth Catherine Rebecca (Daly) Primrose. His father was a barrister and was elected to the Halifax City Council from 1853-1855. He was a distant cousin to the Earls of Rosebery. Philip graduated from the Royal Military College in 1885 and joined the North-West Mounted Police (NWMP) as an Inspector. He was posted to Wood Mountain, Fort Macleod, and Calgary where he also served as a Justice of the Peace. He was assigned to the Yukon in 1898.¹⁾

Inspector Primrose sailed from Vancouver on the Tees in the spring of 1898 with Sergeant Albert McDonell and nineteen men. He had been given $500 by Commissioner Herchmer and told to buy four months of provisions for he and his men. He was to take his party by steamer up the Stikine and make camp, gradually freighting the supplies to a new post. He was given a copy of the Canada Sessional Paper No. 125 of 1878 with maps to define the Hunter Conventional line between Canada and Alaska and was told to build as close to the line as possible.²⁾

Primrose served under Superintendent Wood at Tagish Post in 1898. Primrose was in charge of the detachment on the Stikine River. In the summer of 1898, Wood was building more permanent structures at Tagish and Inspector Primrose was ordered to leave a non-commissioned officer and two men on the Stikine and come to Tagish to help.³⁾

“H” Division was moved to Whitehorse after the WP&YR railway was completed. In March 1901, Inspector Crosby and Superintendent Primrose were moved to Dawson’s B” division, and Inspector Arthur Snyder was promoted to Superintendent and given command of “H” Division in Whitehorse. In September 1901, there were rumours of an American takeover by the Order of the Midnight Sun. Superintendent Primrose was in command during the absence of Superintendent Wood. He and the former detective, J.H. Seeley, did some undercover work in Skagway, during which he was arrested for being drunk.⁴⁾

Primrose supervised the 1900 Yukon census, reporting that the territory’s population was 16,463. He guarded prisoners, levied fines, and fought fires before he was transferred out the of territory in 1902. He was posted to Maple Creek, now in Saskatchewan, and after two months he took over the Fort Macleod, Alberta as Superintendent. Primrose became a prominent land holder in the Maple Creek area. In November 1991 he has appointed commission of police for the newly formed Alberta. In 1913, he was posted to headquarters in Regina to help organize the Criminal Investigation Branch. He retired in 1915 and took the position of police magistrate in Edmonton. In 1917, he was the chair of the three-person Alberta Provincial Police board of commissioners where he supervised the new force. During the First World War he was the commanding officer of the Edmonton reserve Battalion of the Canadian Army with the rank of lieutenant-colonel. He retired from the Edmonton police in 1935. In 1936, he was appointed Lieutenant Governor of Alberta but was too ill to perform his duties. His wife, Lily, attended many public functions in his stead. Upon his death, Primrose was given a state funeral. The primrose subdivision in Edmonton was named in his honour.⁵⁾

In September 1942, Sybil Primrose, daughter of Philip Primrose, arrived in Whitehorse from Edmonton to join the clerical staff of the Canadian Pacific Airlines as a stenographer.⁶⁾