HON. REGINALD RIMMER. 

	Hon. Reginald Rimmer has served as Judge of the District Court in
the Arcola Judicial District for the past sixteen years and has made a
splendid record in this connection.  His birth occurred in Southport,
Lancashire, England, on the 11th of December, 1865, his parents being
Edward Johnson and Sarah Frances (Boothroyd) Rimmer, the former
at one time mayor of Southport and also justice of the peace. The latter
was a daughter of Joseph Boothroyd, a woolen merchant of Bradford,
Yorkshire, and a granddaughter of Benjamin Boothroyd, D. D., a noted
Hebrew scholar.  The Rimmer family comes of English Yeoman stock.
Ancestors for five hundred years held lands in Southwest Lancashire
and were known alternatively as de Rymer, Rymer and Rimmer. Gilbert
de Rymer held land in North Meols in 1325. Gilbert Rymer of North
Meols was entered at Cambridge University in 1623. James Rymer held
land there in 1780. Gilbert Rymer of North Meols (1793-1868), was an
enthusiast for euphonic spelling and first described himself as Rimmer.
	Reginald Rimmer, whose name introduces this review, obtained his
educational training in schools of Southport and Liverpool, England. He
was admitted to the bar in England as a solicitor with honors in 1888,
as a barrister of Saskatchewan, Alberta and the Northwest Territories in
Canada in 1892 and six years later was admitted to practice in Manitoba.
For four years he practiced before the courts in England, chiefly as
an advocate. The year 1892 witnessed his emigration to Canada and it
was in Winnipeg, Manitoba, that he joined A. E. Richards, afterward
Justice of Appeal, while in December of the same year he became ass~
ciated with N. F. Davin, Q. C., M. P., at Regina. In 1894 he defended
Luciano and D'Egidio in what was then known as the longest trial for
murder in Canada and the following year was retained by W. R. Mother-
well, now Minister of Agriculture for Canada, and John Hamilton, father
of the Minister of Agriculture for Saskatchewan, in connection with
charges of maladministration in the Qu'Appelle constituency.  Judge
Rimmer was appointed legal adviser to the lieutenant governor of the
Northwest Territories in 1896, succeeding D. L. Scott, Q. C., now Chief
Justice of Appeal in Alberta, and W. C. Hamilton, Q. C. In 1897 he
appeared for the accused before the court en banc of the Supreme court
of the Northwest Territories on crown case reserved at trial of Charcoal,
an Indian convicted of the murder of another Indian, with the result
that the conviction was quashed by judgment of the court. About the
same time he acted for the creditors of one Tibbitts, charged with larceny
of merchandise from them to the extent of thirty thousand dollars, with
the result that the accused was extradited to the United States. From 1894
until 1896 Judge Rimmer served as the first honorary secretary of the
First Liberal Association formed in Regina. In 1898 he was appointed
solicitor to the department of Indian affairs, being the first member of
the bar of the Northwest Territories to be appointed to office at Ottawa.
As such he engaged in the investigation of claims by the Dominion against
Ontario to the extent of one million dollars, arising out of the extinguish-
ment of the Indian title, and advised that the Dominion had nothing to
gain by litigation of such claims.  His advice was ultimately justified
by the judgment of the privy council in Dominion of Canada vs. Ontario,
1910 A. C. 637. He held watching brief for the department of Indian
affairs before the Supreme court of Canada 6n appeal in Ontario Mining
Company vs. Seybold et al., 32 5. C. R. 1. Judge Rimmer issued instruc-
tions for the defense of Indians in many criminal charges against them.
In 1904, having completed the special work for which he was appointed,
he resigned and returned to practice in Regina, where in 1907 he was
joined in partnership by William Trant, afterward police magistrate of
the city. His services have been retained in many important cases. Of
fourteen capital cases in which he was retained or instructed for the
defense only one man was executed. In 1906 he acted as solicitor to the
Grey Nuns when they first established their hospital in Regina. On the
21st of November, 1907, he was appointed Judge of the District Court
for the Judicial District of Arcola.
	Judge Rimmer has filled various important public offices, including
the following: Honorary secretary of the West Assiniboia Liberal Asso-
ciation from 1894 until 1896; legal adviser to His Honour, the Lieutenant
Governor of the Northwest Territories in 1896 and 1897; solicitor for
the Department of Indian Affairs from 1898 until 1904; first grand
knight of Regina Council of the Knights of Columbus in 1907; vice presi-
dent of the Saskatchewan Division of the Canadian Red Cross Society
from 1914 until 1919; member of the Central Council of the Canadian
Red Cross Society since 1917; vice president for the Dominion Canadian
Red Cross Society in 1921; and first president of the District Court Judges
Association from 1918 until 1921.
	Judge Rimmer was rejected for military service in the Great war in
1915 after qualifying for a commission in the Canadian forces. He had
two younger brothers: Gilbert Mime Rimmer, who served with the Hamp-
shire Regiment and was killed in action in the Gallipoli; and Edward
Johnson Rimmer, M. S., barrister at law of London, England, who served
as captain of engineers throughout the period of the war. Judge Rimmer
assisted in recruiting and acted as judge of appeal tribunals under the
Military Service Act, 1917.
	On the 16th of May, 1893, in Montreal, Judge Rimmer was united in
marriage to Miss Leonie Isabel Gertrude Marchant, daughter of William
and Lucy Winifred (Eckersley) Marchant. She was a member of the
first Hospital Aid Society formed in Regina and a charter member of
the Children's Aid Society, of which she served for some time as vice
president. She likewise became a charter member of the Aberdeen Asso-
ciation and joined the first choral society, which was established in Regina
about 1896. Mrs. Rimmer was made president of the Altar Society of
St. Mary's Catholic church, assisted in the introduction of the Imperial
Order of Daughters of the Empire into Saskatchewan and was the first
vice regent of the Forget Chapter, the senior chapter in the province.
She was also one of the founders and the first president of the Women's
Morning Musical Club and for some time acted as president of the Lady
Patronesses of the Regina Grey Nuns Hospital. She became one of the
founders and the first vice president of the Women's Canadian Club of
Regina, in 1922 was elected president of the Women's Catholic League
and from 1916 until 1920 served as president of the Forget branch of the
Canadian Red Cross Society and was instrumental in the establishment
of other branches. In the maternal line she comes of a Catholic family
of Lancaster county and traces her ancestry back to a period prior to the
reign of Henry VIII. Judge and Mrs. Rimmer have become the parents
of six children: Margaret Frances Clare was born in 1894 and she and
her sister, Gertrude Mary Muriel, were the first pupils entered at the
Sacred Heart Academy when it opened in Regina. She was in Belgium
two days prior to the declaration of war in Europe and took up nursing
during the closing years of the world conflict. She is now the wife of
Henry McNally, M. M., of Gravelbourg, Saskatchewan, and the mother
of one son, Reginald John; Gertrude Mary Muriel Rimmer is captain of
Lady Byng of Vimy Company of the Girl Guides; Edward Marchant was
born in Regina in 1898 and obtained his education in St. Boniface Col-
lege. He enlisted when seventeen and a half years of age and qualified
for a commission as lieutenant in the Canadian Expeditionary Forces in
1915 but relinquished his commission and reverted to the ranks in order
to get to France in 1916. He was wounded at the second battle of Somme,
received promotion as a lieutenant and served in France, Belgium and
Germany with the Fifth Canadian Battalion until the close of the war;
Winifred Lucy Helen Rimmer was educated in Bishop's College of Len-
noxville; Gilbert Anthony Houghton Rimmer, who was born in 1903 and
passed away in 1919, entered Campion College of Regina at its opening.
He served as president of the Forget Junior Red Cross branch, was a
Boy Scout and during the period of the Great war won a Soldier of Soil
medal; and Leonard Dominic Norman Rimmer was born in 1905, and
died the following year.
	Judge Rimmer holds membership in the Assiniboia Club of Regina,
the Canadian Club of Regina and Regina Council of the Knights of Co-
lumbus and is a devout communicant of the Catholic church. He is a
pioneer in the fullest sense of the word. He was one of the first to or-
ganize the Liberal party in Regina; the last legal adviser before repre-
sentative government was introduced in the Northwest Territories; the
first member of the bar of the Northwest Territories to be appointed to
office at Ottawa; the first solicitor of the Department of Indian affairs;
a charter member of the Canadian Club; first judge of District Courts;
first grand knight of the Knights of Columbus; one of the first vice presi-
dents of the Canadian Red Cross; first president of the District Court
Judges Association; and was the Catholic lawyer who assisted in intro-
ducing the Grey Nuns to the work they have so nobly extended In the
province. His wife has assisted in the organization of almost all of the
numerous undertakings with which she is associated.  Their children
were among the first students enrolled in the Sacred Heart Academy and
Campion College.


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