W.J.D. Dempster (1876-1964)

Abstract

William John Duncan Dempster, veteran of 37 years' northern service with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, was born in Wales on October 21, 1876. Emigrating to Canada as a young man, he joined the N.W.M.P. in 1897 and the next year was posted to the Yukon, where he spent the rest of his career. Between 1898 and 1934, Dempster served in a dozen different Yukon communities, but his name received national attention in connection with the famous "Lost Patrol" of 1910-1911. ... The patrol of 1910-1911, of which Dempster was not a member, was commanded by Inspector F.J. Fitzgerald. ... When Fitzgerald did not arrive at Dawson as expected, Dempster, then a corporal, was sent out with two other members of the force and an Indian guide to find and rescue the patrol. ... On March 21 and 22 he discovered the bodies. After this disaster Dempster was ordered to make the route safe for future patrols, and thus he spent much of the winter of 1912-1913 establishing supply caches, building shelter cabins, and blazing the trail by making "lobsticks" - trees stripped bare except for their top branches and two branches sticking out lower down, to make them evident as trail markers - something that might have saved Fitzgerald's life had it been done earlier. It was ironic that Fitzgerald's name became better known in southern Canada than Dempster's, for it was Dempster who set the record for fastest patrol over the route - 19 days in connection with the Lost Patrol, and later, in 1920, 14 days over the same ground. But unlike Fitzgerald, Dempster avoided the publicity associated with disasters, for he did not take unnecessary chances in an attempt to set records, and he was not too proud to employ Indian guides or admit the fact on the rare occasions when he lost his way. ... Before he died on October 25, 1964, at the age of 88, he had the satisfaction of knowing that the new road from Dawson to Aklavik was to be named, in his honour, the Dempster Highway.