The British Gendarmerie was a British paramilitary police field force created by Winston Churchill in April 1922 to police Mandatory Palestine. Concerned with the high cost of British Army units acting as police forces in Palestine, Winston Churchill decided that an elite police force similar to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police or South African Constabulary be created for Mandatory Palestine. The unit was intended more for riot control rather than crime solving. The force was disbanded in June 1926 with its duties taken over by the Transjordan Frontier Force.