North West Mounted Police: A Memoir of a Doctor’s Wife

This memoir, written in the late 1930’s, provided a unique perspective into the life of Henrietta Haultain, “a well-to-do girl of the nineties,” born on the family estate of Castleknock, near Peterborough, Ontario.

In 1890, at the age of twenty-four, ‘Etta’ travelled west as the new wife of Assistant Surgeon Charles S. Haultain, of the North West Mounted Police (NWMP). Initially introduced to frontier life at Maple Creek, Northwest Territories (now in the Province of Saskatchewan), she accompanied her husband to three other NWMP posts in, what are now, the Provinces of Saskatchewan and Alberta.

In a strikingly simple and sincere style, often interspersed with humour, she provided a truly rare and fascinating insight into the lives many members of the NWMP, their wives and families, as well as her experiences with area settlers and the Indigenous community.

Written by Henrietta E. Haultain / edited by Donald J. Klancher