William Dempster

William John Duncan Dempster (21 October 1876 – 25 October 1964) was a member of the North-West Mounted Police (NWMP) in the Yukon Territory during the early 20th century. He led an expedition which found the remains of members of the Lost Patrol, three NWMP officers and an ex-NWMP officer guide who disappeared on the trail between Fort McPherson and Dawson City in the winter of 1910–11. The Dempster Highway in northern Canada is named for him.

Early life and career

Dempster was born in Wales on 21 October 1876. He emigrated to Canada as a young man. In 1897, he joined the North-West Mounted Police and was posted to the Yukon the following year.

He served in various communities in the north for the next ten years. In 1907, he began participating in the annual mid-winter dog sled mail patrols between the NWMP detachments in Dawson City and Fort McPherson, a trip of through the wilderness. The time required for the trip depended heavily on the weather; previous patrols had taken as few as 14 days and as many as 56 for the one-way journey. Fitzgerald took enough supplies for 30 days and may have been seeking to set a new speed record for the trip.

When the patrol failed to arrive in Dawson City by late February 1911, Corporal Dempster was dispatched with Constables J.F. Fyfe and F. Turner and First Nations guide Charlie Steward to find and rescue them. They departed Dawson on February 28. On March 22 and 23, the bodies of the four missing men were discovered from Fort McPherson. Dempster's patrol continued to Fort McPherson and then returned to Dawson City. On the return to Dawson, Dempster set a new record, covering the distance in 11 days.