THOMAS EDWIN PERRETT.  

	If a representative group of citizens of Regina were asked, "Whom
do you consider the most remarkable man in your city?" the answer in
nine cases out of ten would be: "Colonel Perrett of the Normal School."
As principal of the Provincial Normal School at Regina, Mr. Perrett had
won for himself a position among the leading educators of western Can-
ada before the great catastrophe in Europe turned his attention from his
professional career to international problems. In 1916, during the Great
war, he took the Sixty-eighth Battalion overseas as its colonel and while
on duty in France sustained wounds that robbed him of his sight forever.
Although he was a man forty-five years old and had thus passed the age
when normal men adjust themselves easily to altered modes of life and
thought, Colonel Ferrett imediately set about learning to live and take
bis part in the activities of a world that makes more appeals to man's
Intelligence through his sense of vision than any other of his faculties.
After attending St. Dunstan's Hospital for Blinded Soldler~he returned
to Regina to take up his duties at the Normal School, where he had laid
them down three years before. As one man put it recently: "He attends
to his duties as well as he did before," and for the last five years he
has conducted his institution along the scholarly and progressive lines
that have always characterized his excellent educational work.
	Born in Pembroke, Ontario, on the 13th of February, 1871, Thomas
Edwin Perrett is the son of Henry William and Mary Elizabeth (French)
Perrett, both natives of Canada. His parents were married in Ontario
and died in Pembroke, where they had passed much of their married life.
The father was a teacher in his early manhood, but later became a Clerk
of the Court and spent many years in this position. He was a member
of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and voted with the Conserva-
tive party. Both he and his wife were members of the Methodist church.
Of their five children, but two are living: Thomas Edwin of this review;
and Mrs. E. T. White of London, Ontario.
	Thomas Edwin Perrett received his early educational training in
his native city, attending the public and high schools. In 1891 he gradu-
ated from Victoria University with the Bachelor of Arts degree and
subsequently took graduate work at the University of Chicago and Co-
lumbia University in New York city. Mr. Perrett began his life work as
an educator as soon as he had obtained his college degree, going to Car-
berry, Manitoba, where he taught for a short time.  The same year he
went to Medicine Hat as principal of the school and remained there until
1896, when he was appointed inspector of schools for the Northwest Ter-
ritories, with headquarters in Calgary. He was transferred to the Prince
Albert district in 1898 and later moved to Edmonton as inspector of
Northern Alberta.  There he was busily engaged in school work before
he moved to Yorkton district.  Following his marriage, which was sol-
emnized in 1902, he returned to Edmonton as inspector. He first came to
Regina in 1904, when he was made assistant in the Provincial Normal
School, the following year advancing to the position of principal, which
he held until 1912.  In this year he became superintendent of the city
schools of Regina. Three years later he returned to the Normal School,
whose affairs he has directed ever since, with the exception of the three
years he spent in the military service during the Great war.  As has
been already stated he has discharged the varied duties connected with
this position very ably, in spite of the fact that for the past five years
he has been totally blind as the result of injuries received during the war.
Always an indefatigable worker, he has labored for years for the advance-
ment of education in the western provinces of Canada, as well as given
every possible consideration to the positions he has filled.  To this end
he has taken a very active part in the teachers' institute work which
he considers of great value in raising the standards of the teaching pro-
fession as a whole.
	In 1915 Mr. Ferrett left his duties at the Normal School to organize
the Sixty-eighth Battalion, which was largely composed of men from
this district, and the following year took his unit overseas to fight in the
trenches of France. When he had sufficiently recovered from the wounds
that resulted in the loss of his sight, he went to St. Dunstan's Hospital
for Blinded Soldiers, where he learned to make his other senses do the
work of the sense of vision he had lost. He returned to Regina in 1918
and resumed the activities of civilian life, although to this generation
of Regina citizens he will always be known as Colonel Perrett.
	In 1902, in the fall of the year, Mr. Perrett was married to Miss
Jessie Stewart, a Scotchwoman by birth.  Her parents brought her to
Montreal when she was a little child and she has lived in Canada ever
since.  Colonel and Mrs. Perrett have one child: Thomas Stewart Per-
rett, who is fifteen years of age. The family is identified with the Meth-
odist church. Mr. Perrett is a Mason and a member of the Independent
Order of Odd Fellows. He represents the educational profession in the
Kiwanis Club and belongs to the Assiniboia, Regina Country and Canadian
Clubs, having served in the latter as president at one time.  He also has
membership in the Order of the British Empire (0. B. E.), receiving his
(lecoration from the Prince of Wales when he visited Regina in the year
1919. Formerly Colonel Perrett was very active in sporting and athletic
events, which probably helps to account for the splendid physique that
enabled him to enter the army when he was considerably past the usual
military age. Lacrosse, tennis and football were his favorite games. The
last time he played football it was for the championship of Regina city
against the North West Mounted Police.  Regina city won.  Such in brief
is the record of the career of one whose life, more than the lives of most
men, commands admiration and manifests qualities that are worthy of
emulation.


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