Commissioner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police - Definition and Overview

Commissioner is the highest rank of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). (The RCMP was originally known as the Northwest Mounted Police (NWMP), changing its name to the RCMP on February 1, 1920.) The Commissioner reports directly to the Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness.

There have been 20 Commissioners of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police since 1873, when the NWMP was formed:

1. W. Osborne Smith (September 25, 1873 - October 17, 1873)
2. George A. 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 - present)

External links

• Diary of Commissioner George French (http://www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/history/marchwest_e.htm)