Massed ranks of police officers marched behind the hearse as the flag-draped coffin of a “father figure” among RCMP officers in Haiti was driven slowly on the final steps of the journey from that devastated country to his home province.

The death of Sergeant Mark Gallagher in the Jan. 12 earthquake struck home across this region, where his role as a police spokesman had made him the familiar face of the law to many. In the area of Woodstock, N.B., his family was known and well liked, and he was admired for his willingness to help the less fortunate.

Hundreds lined the streets yesterday to pay their respects.

The vibrant red serge jackets of fellow Mounties dominated the procession to St. Gertrude’s Roman Catholic Church, but there was also the light blue of the United Nations, the green of the Sûreté du Québec provincial police force, and navy tunics of police from across the country.

“Any man or woman that gives their life in her majesty’s service deserves a hero’s send-off,” said RCMP Sergeant Gilles Blinn, who had known and worked with Sgt. Gallagher for 10 years.

“We’re here celebrating Mark’s life today but there’s thousands of other families burying their dead in Haiti … and we grieve for them, too.”

In the century-old church in this small town about 100 kilometres west of Fredericton, Father Bill Brennan recalled Sgt. Gallagher’s “exceptional passion and courage and professionalism.” He cited the many ways the officer had heeded God’s call and urged the congregation to follow his example.

Lisa Gallagher told those at the service that her husband – whose guilty pleasure was bags of potato chips that he hid around the house – rarely got angry. “Mark was a gentle, kind spirit.”

But his last trip home from Haiti at Christmas was different.

“He had tremendous trouble reconciling our lifestyle to the misery he was seeing in Haiti,” she said.

Hundreds who couldn’t get into the church yesterday lined the streets for the procession and moved to a nearby civic centre to watch a broadcast of the service.

“It’s on a lot of people’s minds,” Woodstock resident Ron Ruckstuhl said. “It gives a lot of thought to what these RCMP officers are doing in Haiti.”

Sgt. Gallagher was one of two Mounties killed in the earthquake. The 50-year-old was completing a nine-month term with the UN peacekeeping mission. His body, along with that of Superintendent Doug Coates, was found in the ruins of their residence in Port-au-Prince.

An RCMP officer on the flight that brought Sgt. Gallagher’s coffin home praised the officer as a leader.

“He was our mentor. He was our leader. For me, he was more of a father figure,” said Corporal Christine Briand, struggling through tears.

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