John Shiwak

John Shiwak

John Shiwak (1889 – November 20, 1917) born Rigolet, Labrador, Canada and died at Masnieres, France when a German shell exploded killing him and six of his fellow soldiers during the First World War. He was a member of the Newfoundland Regiment and noted to be one the best snipers in the British forces during the war.

Shiwak, an Inuit, lived at Cul-de-Sac, a small community near Rigolet, at the entrance to Lake Melville. According to family lore, the family name was changed from Sikoak, an Inuit word meaning "thin ice," by Dr. Harry Paddon of the Grenfell Mission to Shiwak. He was a hunter in the far interior of Labrador and also of the Labrador Sea near his hometown, where he learned to handle a rifle.

Shiwak had joined the Legion of Frontiersmen, a paramilitary organization that had been founded in Great Britain in 1905 and had set up operations in Newfoundland and Labrador in 1911. In 1915 Shiwak left Rigolet for St. John's and enlisted in the Newfoundland Regiment. During his time in the war his superiors recognised his abilities as a sharp shooter and was promoted to Lance Corporal. As part of the mission to clear pockets of resistance near Cambrai, on November 20, 1917, the regiment was engaged in an assault on the French village of Masnieres when a German shell exploded killing seven, including Shiwak.

ee also

* List of people of Newfoundland and Labrador
* List of communities in Newfoundland and Labrador

External links

* [http://www.wonderstrand.com/memorial/persons1/Shiwak_John.html John Shiwak Royal Newfoundland Regiment]
* [http://www.ainc-inac.gc.ca/ch/rcap/sg/sg45_e.html Indian and Northern Affairs mention of John Shiwak]
* [http://www.nunatsiaq.com/news/iqaluit/28_Baker_Lake_students_honour_an_Inuk_war_hero.html Baker Lake students honour an Inuk war hero John Shiwak]
* [http://www.frontiersmenhistorian.info/canada7.htm John Shiwak - An Inuit Frontiersman by Dean Bruckshaw, Historian & Archivist (Canada), Legion of Frontiersmen (Countess Mountbatten's Own)]
* [http://www.vac-acc.gc.ca/content/collections/virtualmem/photoview.cfm?casualty=722588&photo=32490 Photo of John Shiwak]
* [http://www.canadiangreatwarproject.com/searches/soldierDetail.asp?ID=41221 Lance Corporal John Shiwak from the "Canadian Great War Project"]


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