Headstone honours RCMP officer killed in 1913 shootout
EDMONTON Dusk was falling when Cpl. Maxwell Bailey and two fellow North West Mounted Police officers arrived on horseback at the property of Oscar Fonberg at Grassy Lake, near present day Vegreville.
It was April 23, 1913, and the province was gripped by an unseasonably warm spell. Fonberg was wanted on a warrant of insanity — a legitimate charge in those days — after shooting at a neighbour.
At the sight of the Mounties, Fonberg fled his ramshackle shanty and hid in a dugout in the hillside.
He warned police repeatedly to leave him be. He was armed. He told them he would shoot. The accomplished hunter stayed true to his word and opened fire on the trio, killing Bailey with a shot to the head and injuring two other constables; one in the groin, the other in the arm.
The surviving constables somehow managed to flee the scene and headed for a neighbouring detachment to get backup. Fonberg escaped into the inky, clammy evening.
The following day, Fonberg was found and cornered yet again, and another gun battle with Mounties ensued. This time it was he who was wounded when he was struck in the leg by a bullet. Somehow the fugitive managed to escape again, but bleeding and in dire need of medical attention, he finally turned himself in.
Fonberg was later tried for murder and sentenced to life in prison.
Bailey was 28 when he was killed. He was unmarried and had no relatives in Canada. His parents grieved from afar for their lost son who was in the service for less than four years.
As the 39th RCMP member to die during service, Bailey was afforded a regimental funeral down the main street of the provincial capital, but when he was buried under a lonesome pine in an Edmonton cemetery, his grave was bereft of a regimental headstone.
That all changed Wednesday when the Edmonton RCMP Veterans Association and RCMP unveiled a brilliantly shiny grey headstone to honour his service.
“We are a product of our history and environment and we must remember the past,” Assistant Commissioner Stephanie Sachsse said following the service.
“Cpl. Bailey gave his life so we could all have a free environment and society ... that’s what our police officers do each and every day out there for Albertans and for the country.
“He answered the call and served with honour.”