Ralph S. (Ralph Selwood) Kendall

Born in Birmingham in 1878, he was educated at Solihull School in Warwickshire and later served in the Army in South Africa during the Boer War. In 1902 he moved to Canada and joined the Royal North-West Mounted Police, beginning the chapter of his life that would most strongly shape his writing.

He married Kate McEachran in 1909 and retired from police work in 1924. His best-known books, Benton of the Royal Mounted and The Luck of the Mounted, are frontier adventures that draw on his experience in the mounted police and helped carry stories of the Canadian West to a wide readership.

His work still appeals to readers who enjoy early twentieth-century popular fiction, especially tales of endurance, law, and life on the northern frontier. Library and public-domain records identify him as Ralph S. Kendall, with Selwood as his middle name, and list his life span as 1878–1940.