Francis Pegahmagabow

He braved enemy fire to carry messages and bring ammunition.

Francis Pegahmagabow was an Ojibwe Nishnaabe of the Caribou clan and Wasauksing First Nation. Born at Shawanaga on Ontario's Georgian Bay, he grew up among relatives after his father's death and his mother's illness. Before the First World War, he worked aboard Great Lakes vessels as a marine fireman. He enlisted in the Northern Pioneers on 13 August 1914, attested at Valcartier on 15 September, and transferred to the 1st Canadian Infantry Battalion, Canadian Expeditionary Force.

In France from February 1915, Pegahmagabow served as a sniper, scout and messenger. During the fighting at Ypres, Festubert and Givenchy, he repeatedly carried messages through danger, maintaining communications when movement between positions could be deadly. This sustained service earned him the Military Medal in 1916. Wounded in the left leg on the Somme that September, he recovered and returned to his battalion.

At Passchendaele on 6 and 7 November 1917, Corporal Pegahmagabow kept contact with neighbouring units before and after the attack, supplied information needed to consolidate the captured ground, and guided a confused relief force into position. He received a bar to his Military Medal. On 30 August 1918, at Orix Trench near Upton Wood during the Battle of the Scarpe, his company was running short of ammunition and risked being surrounded. He crossed ground swept by machine-gun and rifle fire to bring back ammunition, helping the defenders withstand counter-attacks. This action brought a second bar.

Illness ended his front-line service in autumn 1918. He returned to Canada in 1919 and was discharged as a corporal on 13 May. Settling at Wasauksing, he married Eva Tronche; they had eight children, two of whom died young. In the mid-1920s he rejoined the Non-Permanent Active Militia with the Northern Pioneers, serving as company sergeant-major. The regiment later amalgamated with the Algonquin Regiment.

His postwar leadership also took a political direction. As chief of Wasauksing from 1921 to 1925 and again from 1942 to 1945, he pressed for treaty rights and challenged restrictions imposed through the Indian Act. During the Second World War he worked as a civilian security guard at a defence plant. He attended national Indigenous conventions in 1943 and 1944, the latter helping establish the North American Indian Brotherhood. Joining the National Indian Government in 1945, he served as its Supreme Chief in 1949 and 1950. He travelled and corresponded widely about land claims, fishing and trapping rights, and First Nations autonomy. Pegahmagabow died on 5 August 1952 in Parry Sound.

Official historical commendations

Military Medal Historical commendation as reproduced by Veterans Affairs Canada:

“For continuous service as a messenger from February 14th 1915 to February 1916. He carried messages with great bravery and success during the whole of the actions at Ypres, Festubert and Givenchy. In all his work he has consistently shown a disregard for danger and his faithfulness to duty is highly commendable.”

First bar to the Military Medal Historical commendation transcribed from the Department of National Defence's certified Record of Service, 9 November 1934. Line breaks and spacing normalized; original wording and spelling retained:

“At Passchendaele November 6th/7th 1917, this N.C.O. did excellent work, before and after the attack he kept in touch with the flanks advising Units he had seen. This information proving the success of the attack and saving time in consolidating. He also guided the relief to it's proper place after it had become mixed up.”

Second bar to the Military Medal Historical commendation as reproduced by Veterans Affairs Canada, including its bracketed explanation:

“During the operations of August 30, 1918, at Orix Trench, near Upton Wood, when his company were almost out of ammunition and in danger of being surrounded, this NCO went over the top under heavy MG [machine gun] and rifle fire and brought back sufficient ammunition to enable the post to carry on and assist in repulsing heavy enemy counter-attacks.”