The Dictionary of Australasian Biography/French, Colonel George Arthur
French, Colonel George Arthur, R.A., C.M.G., ex-Commandant of Defence Force, Queensland, son of the late John French, of Mornington Park, co. Dublin, was born at Roscommon on June 19th, 1841, and educated at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, and the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich. He was commissioned as lieutenant of the Royal Artillery, on June 19th, 1860, and became captain in 1872, major in 1881, and lieut.-colonel in 1887. He was adjutant of the Royal Artillery at Kingston from 1862 to 1866; Inspector of Artillery in the Dominion of Canada from 1870 to 1878, being appointed Lieut.-Colonel of Canadian Militia in the former year. He was Commissioner of the North-West Mounted Police in Canada from 1873 to 1876; and Inspector of Warlike Stores at Devonport from 1878 to 1888. He organised the Permanent Artillery and Mounted Police of Canada, and commanded the expeditionary force of 300 mounted men and two guns, sent from the Red River to the Rocky Mountains, in 1874. He was made a Companion of the Order of St. Michael and St. George on May 30th, 1877. In Sept. 1883 he was appointed Commandant of the Queensland Local Forces with the local rank of colonel, and arrived in the colony on Jan. 4th, 1884. Colonel French married, in 1862, Janet Clarke, daughter of the late Robert Long Innes, formerly of the 37th Regiment. Colonel French retired in 1891, and returned to England.