Herchmer, William Macaulay

  • DICTIONARY OF CANADIAN BIOGRAPHY ARTICLE: R. C. Macleod, “HERCHMER, WILLIAM MACAULEY (Macaulay),” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 12, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–. See full biography at: https://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/herchmer_william_macauley_12F.html
  • DCB profile notes:
    • Lawyer, militia officer, and NWMP officer; b. 13 Dec. 1844 in Shipton-on-Cherwell, England, son of the Reverend William Macaulay Herchmer and Frances Turner; m. Eliza H. Rose, and they had two daughters; d. 1 Jan. 1892 in Calgary.
    • William Macauley Herchmer came from a prominent loyalist family; his great-grandfather Johan Jost Herkimer served with Butler’s Rangers and settled at Cataraqui (Kingston, Ont.) in 1783. His father, a friend and schoolmate of John A. Macdonald’s, received his university education at Oxford and became an Anglican clergyman. Although the family lived in Kingston, the Reverend Mr Herchmer insisted that his children be born in England. His long-suffering wife dutifully made the arduous journey across the Atlantic for the birth of each of her nine children.
    • In August 1876 Herchmer was appointed superintendent in the North-West Mounted Police. For his first four years he was in charge of the detachment at Shoal Lake, a quiet post near the present Manitoba–Saskatchewan border, which had as its main function the prevention of liquor importation along the Carlton Trail. In 1880 he was transferred to Battleford (Sask. ), at the centre of a rising tide of discontent among the Plains Cree. Herchmer was not unsympathetic to the plight of the Indians but he had rigid ideas about enforcement of the law. These, combined with his total lack of fear, gave rise to alarming confrontations. While he was at Battleford, he and Superintendent Lief Newry Fitzroy Crozier commanded the escort for the western tour of the governor general, the Marquess of Lorne, in 1881.
    • In 1883 Herchmer was moved to the new headquarters of the NWMP at Regina. There he was in charge of the detachments assigned to guard Canadian Pacific Railway property during a strike by engineers and firemen. In the spring of 1884 he was sent to Calgary to take command of E division. A year later, when the North-West rebellion broke out, he and some of his men were ordered to Swift Current (Sask.), where they joined Lieutenant-Colonel William Dillon Otter*’s column and went to the relief of Battleford on 24 April. On 2 May at the battle of Cut Knife Hill the 74 police under Herchmer made up almost a quarter of Otter’s force. Although the attack against the Plains Cree was unsuccessful, Herchmer and the NWMP received high praise from Otter for their performance in the fighting.
  • Grandson of United Empire Loyalist listed in Loyalist Directory: https://uelac.ca/loyalist-directory/detail/?wpda_search_column_id=3780
  • Find A Grave: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/238951733/william-macauley-herchmer