It is entirely appropriate that the first members of the Canadian Provost Corps were volunteers from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Already having had police training, well educated and disciplined, RCMP volunteers provided the Canadian Army with an instant Provost service when it was needed most.
No. 1 Provost Company (RCMP) was called out for active service on the 1st of September, 1939 by authority of Army General Order 135. Training for the initial 116 volunteers commenced immediately at RCMP "N" Division, Rockliffe, Ontario (a suburb of Ottawa). On a training course lasting less than a week they studied military law, learned army drill (which was slightly different from RCMP drill), and mastered the Norton motorcycle. The Company then left Canada for England as part of the 1st Canadian Infantry Division. Arriving in England on the 17th of December, 1939, the Company began intensive training for it's role as an infantry division Provost Company.
The Company was made up of 16 man sections, each commanded by a Sergeant. The second in command of each section was a corporal, the remaining 14 men were lance corporals. As the war progressed, the numbers of non RCMP members of No. 1 Provost increased, by 1945, few original members of the Company remained with the unit.
In early and mid 1940, several reenforcement drafts were sent to No 1 Company to replace transferred men or casualties. The above photograph shows the third reenforcement draft at Camp Borden Ontario, in July, 1940. All are members of the RCMP with the exception of the Officer in the center, a Captain in the Lorne Scots.
1st Canadian Infantry Division and No. 1 Provost Company participated in the Sicily invasion on July 10, 1943 and the landing on the Italian mainland. The Division fought it's way up the Italian countryside and was withdrawn to North West Europe in early 1945. No. 1 Provost Company wound up at the end of the war in Holland.
On September 26 1945, the last RCMP members of No 1 Provost Company left the unit for return to Canada, and the Company was disbanded on October 18.
In the early 1950s, RCMP Commissioner L.H. Nicholson, who was the Canadian Army Provost Marshal in 1945, proposed that selected members of the RCMP be given Provost training in order that they would be availible for Provost duties in the event of another war. Volunteers underwent a 6 week long basic Military Police Course at the Provost Training School at Camp Borden Ontario. Trainees recieved instruction in military traffic control, route marking and wartime Provost duties. They wore RCMP insignia on standard issue military uniforms. Senior NCO instructors were provided by the Provost Corps. The program was discontinued in the late 1950s.
RCMP Corporal recieving army kit at the Canadian Provost Corps School, 1954
