George Arthur French

Sir George Arthur French
Sir George Arthur French
	Colonel George Arthur French, 1883
Born	19 June 1841; Roscommon, Ireland
Died	7 July 1921 (aged 80); Kensington, England
Buried	Brompton Cemetery, London
Allegiance	United Kingdom
Service/branch	British Army
Years of service	1860–1902
Rank	Major General
Commands	Commandant of the New South Wales Military Forces (1896-02); Commandant of the Queensland Defence Force (1883–91); Commissioner of the North-West Mounted Police (1873–76)
Battles/wars	Red River Rebellion; North-West Frontier
Awards	Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George

Major General Sir George Arthur French KCMG (19 June 1841 – 7 July 1921) was a British Army officer who served as the first Commissioner of the North-West Mounted Police, from October 1873 to July 1876, and as Commandant of the colonial military forces in Queensland (1883–91) and New South Wales (1896–1902)

George Arthur French was born at Roscommon, Ireland. He was educated at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, and the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, and commissioned in the Royal Artillery in 1860.

In 1871, at the request of the Canadian government, he was sent to Canada as a military inspector, eventually becoming head of the School of Gunnery at Kingston, Ontario.

French was appointed to organize the North-West Mounted Police on its creation in 1873, and the next year he led the force on its famous march to the foothills of the Rockies.

French resigned in 1876 and returned to duty in the British Army, eventually attaining the rank of major general. The organizational skills developed in Canada were used to establish local defence forces in India and Australia. In September 1883 he was appointed Commandant of the Queensland Local Forces with the local rank of colonel, and arrived in the colony on January 4, 1884. Colonel French married, in 1862, Janet Clarke, daughter of the late Robert Long Innes, formerly of the 37th Regiment. Colonel French retired in 1891, and returned to England.^[1]

When French retired in 1902 he received a knighthood and for the next 19 years much of his time was spent guarding the crown jewels in London, where he died in 1921.