Francis Pegahmagabow was born near Parry Sound, Canada in 1891, he was the most highly decorated Canadian Native in the First World War. An Ojibwa from the Parry Island Band; he was awarded the Military Medal (MM) plus two bars for bravery in Belgium and France. Soldiers who had been awarded the MM and later performed similarly heroic acts could receive up to two bars to it, showing further awards. Pegahmagabow was one of only 39 members of the CEF who received the maximum two bars to the MM.
Pegahmagabow enlisted with the 23rd Regiment (Northern Pioneers) in August 1914 – almost immediately after war was declared. Within weeks of volunteering, he became one of the original members of the 1st Canadian Infantry Battalion, which, along with the rest of the 20,000-strong 1st Canadian Division, landed in France in February 1915.
Sniping was his specialty; it has been written of him, “His iron nerves, patience and superb marksmanship helped make him an outstanding sniper.” “Peggy”, as he was nicknamed, earned a reputation for being a superior scout. The 1st Battalion experienced “heavy action” almost as soon as it arrived on the battlefield. It fought at Ypres, where the enemy introduced a new deadly weapon, poison gas, and on the Somme, where Pegahmagabow was shot in the leg. He recovered and made it back in time to return with his unit to Belgium. In November 1917, the 1st Battalion joined the assault near the village of Passchendaele. Here, roughly 20,000 Allied soldiers crawled from shell crater to shell crater, through water and mud. With two British divisions, the Canadian Troops attacked and took the village, holding it for five days, until reinforcements arrived. The Allies suffered 16,000 casualties at Passchendaele. For his bravery shown “Peggy” earned his first bar to the MM and shortly after he received his second bar.
In April 1919, Pegahmagabow was invalided to Canada, having served for nearly the entire war. Afterward, he joined the Algonquin Regiment in the non-permanent active militia and, following in the steps of his father and grandfather, became chief of the Parry Island Band and later a councilor. His grandson said of him: “He was always saying how we have to live in harmony with all living things in this world.”
Although he was treated as an equal among his fellow soldiers, he was very disappointed when he returned home to the Reserve after the war and discovered that attitudes hadn’t changed at all. He was still an Indian, and treated as a second-class citizen. For the rest of his life, Pegahmagabow spearheaded the cause of native rights, being one of the early activists in this long, exhausting battle to achieve the right of aboriginal peoples to control their own destiny.
Francis Pegahmagabow, a member of Canada’s Indian Hall of Fame, died on the reserve in 1952, he was 61 years old.
