Ivan Thue

Divisions Served: “K,” “G,” “E,” “Depot”

Medals & Honours: Long Service Medal

Pillar Location: Pillar IX, Row 31, Column F

Story: 

This story is in memory of my husband, Ivan Thue.  He was born at on a farm near Langham, Saskatchewan on July 18^th, 1922 to Jens and Bertha Thue.  Ivan had one brother and five sisters. He went to a country school but took his grade 11 and Grade 12 in Langham.

This is an excerpt from Ivan’s book, Arctic Memories:  “In 1936 when I was 14 years old a police car drove into our farm yard and talked to my dad about some investigation they were working on.  They were dressed in brown serge tunics, blue britches with yellow stripes glistening high brown boots and Sam Browne belts with revolvers.  I was deeply impressed by the clean cut neat appearance of those policemen and thought to myself, ‘Wouldn’t it be great if I could somehow become a member of that elite Force.’  I decided then and there that that would be my goal.”  When he had finished High School, he applied and passed his entrance exam and while he was waiting to be called, he worked at an explosive plant in Winnipeg.  He got the call to go to Regina for training in January 1942.

His first postings were at Lethbridge and Blairmore on Highway Patrol.

He then decided to apply to go North and was accepted.  In June 1944, he and five other members went to Waterways on the Northern Alberta Railway and after a few days wait, boarded the “S.S. Northern Echo”, a large steamboat that carried supplies to various northern communities.  He arrived in Coppermine August 10^th.  He enjoyed both Eskimos and a few whites including Const. Hadley, who had already been there a year.  While in Coppermine, Ivan and the special constable made several trips to the far North including Reid Island, Holman Island and Berkley Point. 

From Coppermine, he was transferred to Alklavik, which was a much larger detachment.  On his way back to Aklavik, the RCMP plane stopped in Tuktoyaktuk and the Sgt. Larsen and the St. Roch were there.  To Ivan’s delight, Sgt. Larsen invited him to have dinner on the boat.

While in Aklavik, he went on fishing and hunting trips and patrols to Tuktoyaktuk and Ft. McPherson and in June 1946, he was transferred to Ft. McPherson, enjoyed his posting there and was back in Aklavik in the fall.  He went to on a patrol with the Special Constable to Tuktoyaktuk, in late January in 1947, got in a really bad snowstorm and nearly froze to death.  He froze his feet badly and was in hospital for several weeks when he got back to Aklavik.  The Doctor thought he would lose at least one foot but he didn’t though it did give him some trouble.

In June, he was transferred to Regina.  He lectured on the Indian Act at Depot and that fall, on October 25^th, he met me, his wife to be at a dance at the YWCA.

We were married on July 31, 1948, two weeks after his birthday.  At that time, members had to be 26 to get married.

We were transferred to Vancouver a week after we were married.  Ivan worked at Fairmont Barracks and went to Victoria when the Force took over the BC Provincial Police.

He also guarded Prime Minister Nehru when he visited Vancouver and had several visits with his daughter Indira.  I believe she was nineteen at the time.  He also played on the RCMP ball team when we were there.

Ivan had the North in his blood and we headed back there in June 1950.  This time it was to Arctic Red River where the Peel met the McKenzie River.  We went to Norman Wells in a DC 3 with only bucket seats and then Harry Heacock and Rusty Chapin took us the rest of the way in MPL, a Norsemen. They became good friends and stayed with us whenever they were in the area.

The Hudson Bay man, Gordon Simpson, his wife and two children and the Roman Catholic Father and Priest were the only white people there.   All the adults knew how to play bridge so we had several games and the Father and Brother brought us a big bottle of sacramental wine for Christmas.  We had good friends among the natives too.

When we arrived, we had a prisoner, Crutches by name.  He wore a red bandana around his neck.  He got a toothache and asked Ivan to pull it.  Ivan said he didn’t pull teeth but Crutches told him Johnny Morrison had.  Ivan found that he had all the necessary equipment to pull teeth including Novocain and an instruction book so he did the job, followed by a shot of penicillin.  We had all the health supplies and if anyone in the settlement got sick, we would wire the Doctor in Aklavik.  He would usually tell us to give the patient penicillin.  Ivan gave the men their shots and I looked after the women.  Fortunately, no one was allergic to it.

One of Ivan’s dental patients, nineteen-year-old Willie Baptiste went with his friend Dale Clark to his cabin on his trap line to partake of the batch of homebrew he had made.  They both got drunk.  Dale survived and came to report to Ivan that he couldn’t find Willie.  Ivan had to get a plane from Aklavik to go and take him to the site where Dale’s cabin was.  They found Willie a fair distance from the cabin frozen to death.

I found out that Jerry, our first-born was on the way so was pleased when Ivan got a promotion to Corporal and a transfer to Aklavik where there was a doctor.  Our second child, Leslie, was born 15 months later.  Ivan signed his birth certificate.  That was part of his job.  Jerry was baptized by Field Marshall Mongomery’s brother Colin.

Ivan skipped a curling team while we were in Aklavik and he learned to play bridge on the S.S. Distributor so that was a good pass time too.  He was promoted to Sgt. before we left.

We were transferred to Ottawa and left Aklavik in June\53 and after a visit with our parents in Saskatoon and Regina we left by car with our two sons and Ivan’s sister and her two year old.  That was quite a trip.

Ivan was transferred to “G” Division Headquarters and his boss was Supt. Larsen for seven of the ten years.  Ivan was in the Orderly room and was promoted to S. Sgt. there.  He enjoyed his time there very much and made lots of friends.  Jack Maidens and Ed Ard were both there with their families and they had been in Aklavik when we were there.  The Larsens used to visit us in Ottawa and Supt. Larsen gave our two sons, Jerry and Leslie, two model boats that he had made, the Bluenose and The Maid of Orleans.

Ivan was always community minded and was active in raising money for Boy Scouts and was also the Umpire on our son’s ball team.  We had two more children in Ottawa, Ron in 1955 and Kathy in 1960.

Ivan asked for a transfer out west so we could be near our aging parents in 1963 and he got word that he had been transferred to Rockcliffe and decided to leave the force so we moved back to the prairies the summer of 1963.  We were in Winnipeg for a few months when Ivan got a job with Unemployment Insurance in Dauphin, Manitoba.  While in Dauphin, Ivan started Toastmaster’s and got the Dauphin Ukrainian Festival started.  We spent two years there and Ivan accepted a job in Regina with the Saskatchewan Chamber of Commerce.

Ivan had a few of other jobs in Regina before he ended up as Manager of Prairie Implement Manufacturers Association which he enjoyed very much and I worked with him for ten years before we retired.  He was a Director of the Exhibition Board for many years.

He joined the RCMP Veteran’s Association and was one of three people that were instrumental in starting “The Friends of the Mounted Police Heritage Centre.”  He was President for four years and the Editor of Friendly Notes for many years.  Ivan loved and promoted the “Friends” and the Museum.

We used to have the Friends’ Annual meetings at our cottage.  The members and their wives would bring food but we would supply the Saskatoon pie.  It was always fun.  Bill and Dorothy Perry hosted the meeting for several years after we stopped.

He took his three sons back to all the places he’d been stationed at in the North via Yellowknife in 1995, and they had a wonderful trip.

Ivan wrote a book called “Arctic Memories”.  There are copies in the Gift Shop at the Heritage Centre.

He was also an Elder at Westminster United Church for many years and a member of the GYRO Club.  He liked history and was historian for both the GYRO Club and the Exhibition Association, both volunteer jobs.

On a personal note, I would like to say that Ivan was a wonderful caring and loving husband, father and grandfather.  He loved nature and took our grandchildren on nature walks at the cottage we had at Como Park.  He was fun loving and liked golfing and would take the boys or grandchildren along whenever he could.  He also went to the Roughrider games for many years.

Ivan passed away from cancer September 16^th, 2004.   His ashes are in the RCMP Cemetery in a columbarium with many of his friends.