Missionaries, Police, and Traders
Anglican missionary Isaac Stringer first visited Herschel Island in 1893. He returned with his wife in 1896, and ministered to the people there until his departure in 1901. Stringer and other missionaries attempted to build a church on the island, but were not successful. A mission house was constructed in 1916 by Reverend Whittaker. This building still stands, but is in poor condition.
In 1903 RCMP Inspector Francis J. Fitzgerald visited Herschel Island. The following year, he and Constable Sutherland established a detachment on the island, which was at first based in two small sod huts. From 1910 to 1931 Herschel Island was subdistrict headquarters for the RCMP in the Western Arctic. Command was transferred to Aklavik in 1931, and Herschel Island was patrolled intermittently until 1948, when the detachment was reopened on a seasonal basis. On February 16, 1918 Herschel Island suffered it's first loss of a police officer. Constable Alexander Lamont age 30, Badge Number 5548 Royal Northwest Mounted Police died of a duty related illness. Constable Lamont died from typhoid fever at Hershel Island, Yukon, while attending to the needs of another victim of the disease. ; http://canada.odmp.org/officer/584-constable-alexander-lamont Sadly, on July 14, 1958, Herschel Island suffered another loss of a police officer. Constable Carl Lennart Sundell, aged 24 years, was stationed on-board the RCMP supply schooner HERSCHEL at the time of his death and died as a result of an accidental shooting. He was shot while boarding the vessel which was in a cradle onshore for repairs. The RCMP post was closed permanently in 1964.
In 1915 the Hudson's Bay Company sent Mr. Christy Harding to Herschel Island to establish a post. Soon after his arrival he constructed a store, house, warehouse, and several other buildings. Business at the post was never lucrative. In 1937 the Bay closed its doors on the island, and its buildings were abandoned. None of them remain.
In 1926 the Northern Whaling and Trading Company constructed a store, warehouse and small shed on the island. These buildings still stand, though in recent years they have been moved as much as 10 meters inland, away from the receding shoreline.
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