Watchdog: A History of the Canadian Provost Corps

Sidney Allinson is a Victoria-based communications consultant, Canadian
news correspondent for Britain’s The Army Quarterly and Defence, and
the author of Military Archives: International Directory of Military
Publications and The Bantams: The Untold St

The most thankless job in the army is probably that of the military
police. Saddled with extremes of responsibility ranging from serious law
enforcement to petty discipline, the MP is a generally unpopular figure.
No author is better qualified to explain this individual’s duties than
Colonel Andrew Ritchie, who served as a military policeman in two wars
and was the last Provost Marshal (Army) before the amalgamation of the
Canadian Forces in 1967.

In his book, which is based on personal experience and what must have
been an enormous amount of original research, we learn about the
beginnings of the Provost Corps in 1917, and about how World War II MPs
had their work cut out for them in their dealings with troops all across
Canada, as well as in overseas capitals like London and Brussels. There
are crime-detection stories and anecdotes about combating drunkenness
and desertion in settings ranging from training camps to civilian areas
to battlefields. Balancing some of the more hard-edged events are
humorous incidents and moments of compassion when MPs gave erring
soldiers a second chance.

Unfortunately, the book lacks an index, but it is well illustrated with
photographs of notable personnel who served in the unit. With
characteristic modesty, Ritchie makes no mention of his own important
contributions to the development of Canada’s Provost Corps.