George Arthur French was born. June 19, 1841, at Roscommon, Ireland. He was educated at Sandhurst and Woolwich and commissioned in the Royal Artillery in 1860.

In 1871, at the request of the Canadian Government, he was sent to Canada as a military inspector.eventually becoming head of the School of Gunnery at Kingston, Ontario.

He was appointed to organize the NWMP on its creation in 1873 and the next year he led the force on its famous march to the foothills of the Rockies.

He resigned in 1876 and returned to duty in the British Army, eventually attaining the rank of major-general. The organizational skills developed in Canada were used to establish local defence forces in India and Australia.

When he retired in 1902 he received a knighthood and for the next 19 years much of his time was spent guarding the crown Jewels in London, England where he died in 1921.