Const. Edward Denne is one of three North West Mounted Police veterans buried in Union Cemetery to receive new headstones from The Last Post Fund.
Headstones were placed last month on graves of three men who served with the North West Mounted Police.
Volunteer researcher Yvonne Sugimoto discovered the three veterans were buried in Union Cemetery, but they were not identified as veterans.
Sugimoto contacted The Last Post Fund with her research, and the organization agreed to provide the military headstones.
Sugimoto first came across the names of Edward Denne, Hans William Erland Kjosterud and Darnley Liddell Murison in 2015-’16.
At that time, Sugimoto was working with the Alberta Genealogical Society and the Town of Fort Macleod on old cemetery records.
Sugimoto located some obituaries and ordered Alberta Death Rigisters for Murrison and Denne.
“By 2019 I knew that all three served with the NWMP,” Sugimoto said.
Const. Edward Denne was born June 22, 1870 in England, one of eight children for John and Lucy Denne.
Denne joined the North West Mounted Police in 1893 served as a constable and was discharged five years later, in 1898.
According to The Macleod Gazette, Denne died of a heart attack Sept. 14, 1901 while working in the field at the R. McCrae ranche, at the age of 31.
The North West Mounted Police Veterans Association conducted the funeral from Christ Church.
Hans William Erland Kjosterud was born in 1854 in Norway and later became a lieutenant in the Norwegian army.
According to The Macleod Gazette, after leaving the army Kjosterud travelled for some time before enlising in the North West Mounted Police in 1885. He served as a constable in B.C. under Supt. Sam Steele and took his discahrge at Macleod.
After leaving the NWMP, Kjosterud travelled for about a year in Europe before returning to Canada with plans to locate in B.C. and go into business.
Kjosterud disappeared on June 13, 1892 near Kipp. His drowned body was discovered in the Old Man River near Pope’s Bottom on July 7, 1892.
“The funeral was a military one, and the police marched to the cemetery in strong force,” the Gazette reported. “It will be a consolation to the deceased’s friends to know that, although dying so far from his home, every honour was paid in his memory by friends, who were not lacking on this sad occasion.”
Darnley Liddell Murison was born May 29, 1863 in England, and came to Canada in the spring of 1886.
Murison joined the NWMP on June 3, 1886 at the age of 24 in Toronto, attained the rank of sergeant, and purchased his discharge for $50 in 1898 to take a job with the CPR.
Murison worked in offices in Macleod following his discharge, and was one of the early members of the Masonic Lodge in the town.
Murison died Nov. 21, 1922 in Macleod Hospital at the age of 72 years. His wife had died three years earlier.
“It was one of the largest Masonic funerals ever seen in Macleod, the Lethbridge Herald reported. “The church was filled to overflowing and the service was very impressive.”
Denne is buried in his own plot, Murison is in the family plot, and Kjosterud is in the field of honour.
