His father William Perry was a Justice of the Peace, deputy-reeve, and member of the Lennox and Addington County Council.

He was educated as part of the first class at the Royal Military College of Canada in Kingston, Ontario, student #13, one of the "Old Eighteen."

[1] When the Royal Engineer's medical staff determined that Perry's leg was not yet properly healed, his commanding officer advised him to return to Canada.

During the North-West Rebellion of 1885, he was appointed a major in the Canadian Militia, and received command of the second section of the Alberta Field Force.

While crossing the Red Deer River, he nearly died landing a tow rope attached to the raft carrying a field gun.

"[1] Perry continued, "As farming is the inevitable pursuit of the French half-breeds, all who are friendly to them should agree in urging and encouraging them to remain on their present holdings, so that they may at once face their destiny and ultimately obtain the position of a self-supporting people.

They should be treated with patience and aided generously, remembering that it is not easy for white men possessing all the advantages of education and civilization to change their occupation.

It would be an astonishing thing if they quietly and quickly adapted themselves to the work of a farm on which success is only obtained by hard, patient and continuous labour.

There seems to be an absurd idea that the dismissal of a charge means a snub to the Mounted Police, whereas it strikes home at the root of society and threatens the lives and property of the very men who jeer and flaunt.

"[1] As commissioner, he organized a secret service for intelligence gathering, instituted annual training classes, increased pay rates, revised regulations related to marriage, formed two squadrons to fight in the First World War and approved changes to the uniform, with perhaps the formal adoption of the Stetson hat in 1901 being the most noted.

Nevertheless, after the Prince Albert mail was held up near Humboldt, the first stage robbery ever accomplished in the territories, Perry and his detachments landed the robber, a man named Garnett, who was given a long-term sentence in the penitentiary.

King Edward VII added the title "Royal" to the North-West Mounted Police in 1904 when Perry was in command.

"[5] In 1911, he commanded a contingent of Royal North-West Mounted Police which took part in the Empire Celebrations in England, at the time of the Coronation of King George V and Queen Mary.

[5] Aylesworth Perry married Emma Duranty Meikle, the daughter of the postmaster and general merchant in Lachute, Quebec on June 5, 1883.

Their son, Kenneth Meikle Perry (born November 7, 1884) would later become a professor at the Royal Military College of Canada and retire as a Brigadier from the Canadian militia.

In 1948, he was the only member of the "Old Eighteen" to be present at the re-opening of the Royal Military College of Canada and he took the salute for the match past of the "New Hundred".

Perry, CMG ADC (1860–1956) was added to the wall of honour at the Royal Military College of Canada in Kingston, Ontario.