- Philip Primrose
Philip Carteret Hill Primrose (
October 23 ,1864 , Halifax, N.S. –March 17 ,1937 ,Edmonton, Alta. ) was a Canadian police officer andLieutenant Governor of Alberta .P.C.H. Primrose was the son of Alexander Primrose, a Halifax barrister, and Elizabeth Daly. He was related to the Earls of Rosebery, including his namesake the 5th Earl (Prime Minister of the United Kingdom 1894-1895). A graduate of Canada's Royal Military College, he was appointed an Inspector of the paramilitary
North-West Mounted Police in 1885. He served in the future province of Alberta with the Mounties when they were still the sole law in the region and a crucial bulwark against the threats of encroaching American commerce and aboriginal uprising. Promoted to Superintendent in 1899, Primrose was sent to theYukon Territory and was a central figure in theKlondike Gold Rush .Primrose resigned from the RNWMP in 1915 and spent 20 years as an
Edmonton police magistrate , a role requiring him to preside over speedy trials of petty crimes. He was also a member of the board that oversaw and organized the creation of theAlberta Provincial Police , and in theFirst World War he commanded the Canadian Army's Edmonton Reserve Battalion.A Liberal by family heritage and disposition, he was appointed Lieutenant-Governor of Alberta effective
October 1 ,1936 on the advice of Prime Minister Mackenzie King. He was the first Alberta Lieutenant Governor to die while still viceroy, and received the province's first state funeral.External links
* [http://www.assembly.ab.ca/lao/library/lt-gov/primrose.htm Official biography]
* [http://www.ourroots.ca/e/page.aspx?id=3653245 Biographical notice in "Nova Scotians at Home and Abroad"]
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