Cabar Feidh

CSM George H Soles’ DCM with two bars is the left-most medal, with the blue and red
ribbon.
15 km from the Belgian border, and
George Soles recovering in hospital
from wounds incurred while
earning his third DCM, the Great
War was over.
In the summer of 1919
the 72nd Battalion, Seaforth
Highlanders of Canada and George
Soles returned to Canada aboard
the SS Olympia. In the 1920s Soles’
service to his country and province
would continue. Between 1922 and
1928 Soles served as a constable
with the office of the Provincial
Game Warden. In its 1923 annual
report, Soles is recorded working
in the North-East Kootenay District,
that same Columbia River country
where he went to school before
enlisting in 1915. From 1928 until
his retirement in October 1943 Soles
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then served as a constable with the
British Columbia Provincial Police.
Until its dissolution in 1950
and replacement by the RCMP, the
British Columbia Provincial Police
was the only law enforcement
agent across the entire province.
In addition to its policing work,
the British Columbia Provincial
Police also functioned as provincial
government agents. In this role
their far-flung tasks were more as
returning officers, tax collectors,
and census-takers than as police.
In the 1930s, being a
representative of the provincial
government in BC’s distant northern
communities, like Prince Rupert
and Prince George where Soles
was stationed, was a physically
challenging occupation made even
more arduous by vast distances and
the environment. It was an era when
travel to remote settlements in the
middle of winter to investigate a
suspicious death might still best be
made in snowshoes. Such conditions
would have been business-asusual
for the Great War veteran
George Soles, who passed away in
Vancouver on July 26th, 1945 as
another world war was drawing to
a close.
In 2014 George Soles’ DCM
with 2 Bars was bestowed by his
family for keeping with the Seaforth
Highlanders of Canada.
For full image gallery visit
http://www.seaforthhighlanders.
ca/museum/?p=703