Stuart Wood

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For the guitarist of the Bay City Rollers, see Stuart Woody Wood.

Stuart Taylor Wood, CMG (October 17, 1889 – January 4, 1966) served as the ninth Commissioner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, from March 6, 1938 to April 30, 1951.

Born in Napanee, Ontario, Wood's father, Zachary Taylor Wood, served in the North-West Mounted Police from 1885 to 1915 and was Acting Commissioner of the Force.

Wood attended the Royal Military College of Canada in Kingston, Ontario where he graduated in 1912. Shortly after he secured a commission in the RNW Mounted Police. Wood himself served in World War I as a lieutenant in the cavalry in France and Belgium. He served in the Yukon upon returning to Canada in 1919 as Justice of the Peace, Coroner, Sheriff, Game Inspector and Customs Officer.

He established a system of registration for aliens, and dealt with espionage cases in 1945-46. In the North, he opened up new detachments. He organized a permanent Royal Canadian Mounted Police Band. He established the first RCMP scientific laboratory and museum in [[Regina, Saskatchewan. He established a horse breeding station at Fort Walsh. He improved wireless communication and broadcasting. He instituted a preventive policing program for youth. He negotiated provincial policing contracts for Newfoundland and British Columbia. Under his leadership, the Force grew gradually, and scientific methods of crime detection improved. In addition, law enforcement and crime prevention were enhanced.

Wood was the great-great grandson of U.S. President Zachary Taylor. Zachary's third daughter, Anne, married Robert C. Wood, a U.S. Regular Army surgeon, who served the Union during the Civil War, though their two sons served the Confederacy. One of their sons, John Taylor Wood, had been an officer in the U.S. Navy, but with the outbreak of the Civil War resigned, later joining the Confederate Marine Corps, and later served as an office in the famed ironclad Virginia/Merrimac during her encounter with the USS Monitor. He afterwards became a lieutenant colonel in the Confederate Army. After the war John Taylor Wood relocated to Canada.

Wood's two sons, Constables John Taylor Wood and Herschel Taylor Wood, also served on the Force. His son Herschel was killed on duty in 1950. Both Herchel and his father ar buried in the RCMP Depot in Regina. Wood's son John retired from the RCMP as Superintendent in 1988.

Wood retired from the RCMP in 1951 and died in 1966. He was buried in Regina, Saskatchewan.

Police appointments
Preceded by James Howden MacBrien	Commissioner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police 1938-1951	Succeeded by Leonard Nicholson

[edit] References

• Stuart Taylor Wood. Retrieved on June 25, 2006.

• Stuart Taylor Wood. Retrieved on March 17, 2008.