A bridge dedication ceremony in Peterborough, Ont., on Friday will honour an Ontario Provincial Police officer who died in the line of duty in the city 96 years ago to the day.
On Friday, May 3, the Otonabee River Bridge on Highway 115 will be dedicated to Const. Norman F. Maker, who died in 1928 while serving with the Peterborough OPP.
OPP Commissioner Thomas Carrique will be in attendance for the ceremony, which will be held at the Peterborough Drill Hall / Armoury National Historic Site of Canada at 222 Murray St. in Peterborough.
According to the Ontario Police Memorial Foundation, on May 3, 1928, the 32-year-old Maker and another officer (under the Ontario Temperance Act which prohibited the sale of alcohol) were responding to a disturbance at the Montgomery House Hotel regarding a man threatening people with a gun.
Maker and the other officer entered the hotel and the suspect fled up a set of stairs. As the officers followed, Maker exited his room with a handgun, the foundation states.
Maker and the other officer were shot as they fled down the stairway. Maker died from his injuries. The suspect fled but was eventually fatally shot by other Peterborough officers, according to the foundation.
The Ontario Provincial Police Association notes Maker had served six years with the OPP and is to date the only police officer killed in the line of duty in Peterborough. He was the third OPP officer to die while in uniform.
He left behind his wife Muriel and their two daughters, three-year-old Norma and Connie, aged three months.
Before arriving in Peterborough in 1924, Maker first joined the OPP in Belleville in 1922.
The OPPA says Maker was born in Devonshire, England in 1897. He served with the British Expeditionary Forces during the First World War, earning several honours. He arrived to Canada in 1920 and first served with the Oshawa police service and was a detective with the Canadian National Railway before joining the OPP.
The OPPA says Maker was also one of two officers who served as special escorts to the Prince of Wales during the August 1927 opening of the new International Peace Bridge between Canada and the United States.
Friday’s bridge dedication ceremony will begin at 11:30 a.m.