List of Royal Canadian Mounted Police Commissioners

List Of Royal Canadian Mounted Police Commissioners

Commissioner is the highest rank of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), and of its predecessor agencies, the North-West Mounted Police (1873 to 1904) and the Royal Northwest Mounted Police (1904 to February 1, 1920). The Commissioner reports directly to the Minister of Public Safety.

The Commissioner of RCMP is the Principal Commander of the Order of Merit of the Police Forces. He/she also serves as the Commissioner of Firearms under the Firearms Act.

The Canadian monarch is the Commissioner-in-Chief and the heir to the throne is Honorary Commissioner of the RCMP, however neither exercises a substantive role in the operation of the organization.

There have been 23 Commissioners since the founding of the NWMP in 1873:

  1. W. Osborne Smith (September 25, 1873 – October 17, 1873)
  2. George Arthur French (October 18, 1873 – July 21, 1876)
  3. James Farquharson MacLeod (July 22, 1876 – October 31, 1880)
  4. Acheson Gosford Irvine (November 1, 1880 – March 31, 1886)
  5. Lawrence William Herchmer (April 1, 1886 – July 31, 1900)
  6. Aylesworth Bowen Perry (August 1, 1900 – March 31, 1923)
  7. Cortlandt Starnes (April 1, 1923 – July 31, 1931)
  8. Sir James Howden MacBrien (August 1, 1931 – March 5, 1938)
  9. Stuart Taylor Wood (March 6, 1938 – April 30, 1951)
  10. Leonard Hanson Nicholson (May 1, 1951 – March 31, 1959)
  11. Charles Edward Rivett-Carnac (April 1, 1959 – March 31, 1960)
  12. Clifford Walter Harvison (April 1, 1960 – October 31, 1963)
  13. George Brinton McClellan (November 1, 1963 – August 14, 1967)
  14. Malcolm Francis Aylesworth Lindsay (August 15, 1967 – September 30, 1969)
  15. William Leonard Higgitt (October 1, 1969 – December 28, 1973)
  16. Maurice Jean Nadon (January 1, 1974 – August 31, 1977)
  17. Robert Henry Simmonds (September 1, 1977 – August 31, 1987)
  18. Norman Inkster (September 1, 1987 – June 24, 1994)
  19. Joseph Philip Robert Murray (June 25, 1994 – September 1, 2000)
  20. Giuliano Zaccardelli (September 2, 2000 – December 15, 2006)
  21. Beverley Busson (interim) (December 15, 2006 – July 16, 2007)
  22. William J. S. Elliott (July 16, 2007 – December 7, 2011)
  23. Bob Paulson (December 8, 2011 – current)

Read more about List Of Royal Canadian Mounted Police Commissioners:  Acting Commissioners

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