Lieutenant Colonel Frank O. Sissons
1st Mounted Rifles Brigade
Col. Sissons is a real westerner in every sense of the word.
(Edmonton Bulletin, 14 Nov 1914, 1)
Born in Burnside, Manitoba on 23 March 1868, Frank Ogletree Sissons was a militia officer, rancher, and landowner in Medicine Hat. He had created the 21st Hussars in 1908 and with the formation of the Canadian Mounted Rifles in November 1914, Sissons was initially given command of the 3rd CMR. The militia council had selected Colonel Victor Williams to command the 1st CMR Brigade, but militia minister Sam Hughes favoured Sissons to represent the West. He was appointed brigade commander in March 1915.