Thomas Bland Strange

After active service with the artillery in India, including service during the Indian Mutiny (1857), Strange became inspector of artillery and warlike stores in the Canadian Militia, where he laid the essential groundwork for the development of the Canadian artillery and commanded one of its founding permanent units, 1871-82. Too eccentric and controversial for more senior command, he retired to ranch in Alberta, but on the outbreak of the North-West Rebellion, he commanded the improvised Alberta Field Force and led it in action at Frenchman's Butte. He published his lively memoirs, Gunner Jingo's Jubilee, in 1894.