Fort Steele Memorial
Dear Joe,
Background:
Five NWMP members are buried in the Fort Steele Cemetery at Ft. Steele, B.C.
Four members died in 1887 of typhoid fever during the construction of Kootenay Post at Fort Steele (then called Galbraith's Ferry).
The first four members who died of fever were: Cst. Abraham Warner Fisher, Cst. James Mason, Cst. Herbert Mitchell and Cst. Henry Owen Lasenby.
The fifth member was Cpl. Duncan Roderick MacNair. He was born on October 11th, 1864 and he died on April 27th, 1898 at Wardner, B.C. He committed suicide with his revolver when delirious from fever. He joined the NWMP at Killarney, MB on May 18 1892 and it's also known that his father lived in Edinborough, Scotland.
There is one head stone of marble with the four names first mentioned. Cpl.MacNair has his separate headstone. Both monuments are close together and when I visited this site many years ago the wooden enclosure was rotting and falling apart.
In 1995 I donated wrought iron railing and had these graves enclosed within this new fencing. I acquired crushed white marble and pressure treated wood with funding from the local Cranbrook Detachment through Insp. Howard Cox now retired at Cranbrook.
The four members listed on the upright monument with the cross are:
Reg# 1787 A. W. Fisher
Reg# 1788 J. Mason
Reg# 1836 H. Mitchell
Reg# 1848 H.O. Lasenby
The red granite monument is dedicated to:
Reg # 2805 Cpl. Duncan Roderick MacNair
I have maintained this special memorial site since 1995 and I will continue to do so.
Best Regards,
Barry Beaulac
Reg # 18517
Vet.
PS: Also please read my letter of explanation attached.
Click for larger size
