William Wasbrough Foster

Major-General William Wasbrough Foster, CMG, DSO, VD (1 October 1875 – 2 December 1954) was a noted mountaineer, Conservative Party politician, businessman, and chief constable in British Columbia, Canada, in addition to his distinguished military career.

He served with the Canadian Pacific Railway as a superintendent and police magistrate in Revelstoke, manager for the Globe Lumber Company on Vancouver Island, President of the Conservative Party of British Columbia, provincial Member of the Legislative Assembly, and Minister of Public Works prior to the Great War.

In World War I, he fought in the Somme and Vimy Ridge battles and reached the rank of lieutenant colonel and was awarded the DSO.

In 1923, Foster headed the Shipping Federation's protection committee, and organised a group of 144 special constables, who were sworn in and given badges and guns by the Vancouver Police Department.

[2] Foster had somewhat of a showdown with communism during the Battle of Ballantyne Pier on 18 June 1935 when a group of about 1000 longshoremen and supporters marched behind a contingent of war veterans carrying the Union Jack headed towards the waterfront, where strikebreakers were unloading ships.

Foster and contingents from the city, provincial, and federal police forces drove the protesters back with truncheons and tear gas.

In April 1943, Foster was enlisted by Prime Minister Mackenzie King to serve as Commissioner of Defense Projects in Canada's northwest.

Foster's role was to make sure "that no commitments are made and no situation allowed to develop as a result of which the full Canadian control of the area would be in any way prejudiced or endangered.

Lindsay Elms, "William (Billy) Wasbrough Foster, 1875–1954", http://members.shaw.ca/beyondnootka/biographies/w_foster.html Victor Howard, We Were the Salt of the Earth: A Narrative of the On-to-Ottawa Trek and the Regina Riot.