Remembering
One of only nine Sikhs in Canada allowed to enlist in Great War
Modest gravestone for Sikh veteran draws large crowd
KITCHENER — It’s a simple rectangular gravestone at the back of the Mount Hope Cemetery, near a grocery store parking lot and the backyards of neighbouring homes.
But this marker on the final resting place of Pte. Buckam Singh, who died in 1919, drew a huge gathering of military people, historians, police, veterans, cadets, politicians and community members on Sunday.
It is the only military grave in Canada of a Sikh soldier from the First or the Second World War.
And so it has become a gathering place for the national Sikh Remembrance Day Ceremony, attracting hundreds each year.
Singh was one of only nine Sikhs in Canada allowed to enlist in the Canadian army for the First World War.
Born in India in 1893, he came to Canada as a farm labourer in Rosebank, Ont.
During the war, he was wounded in the knee and the head but survived. He was transferred by ship to England from a hospital in France but got influenza. He died two years later in Kitchener’s Freeport Hospital, in 1919.
His story was unknown until a Brampton historian found his medal in a pawnshop.
Lt.-Col. Graham Walsh, commander of the Toronto Scottish Regiment, spoke Sunday about other Sikh soldiers: Lashman (Laal) Singh, who was killed in October 1918 and buried near Vimy Ridge, and Hari Singh, who survived. Both had joined up with his regiment when it was known as the 75th Mississauga Battalion.
He said in order to get accepted into the army, these soldiers would have lied about their religion and claimed they were adherents of the Protestant Church of England.
“I’m very honoured we are welcomed here,” Walsh said.
He and other dignitaries, including Waterloo Mayor Dave Jaworsky and Waterloo MP Bardish Chagger, who is Sikh, laid wreaths at the grave.
Among the more than 150 people who came to the ceremony were cadets, police officers and military professionals from as far as Toronto. Many were Sikh.
There was a moment of silence, the singing of O Canada and a few speeches. A historical display about Buckam Singh, including his typewritten application to the army, was laid out on a nearby table. Afterward, as leaves were blown around by a chilly wind, members of the Sikh community served cups of tea from large urns on a table set up outdoors.
Chagger said she was very pleased to see so many people from various generations and ethnic backgrounds in the crowd, there to “recognize the importance of the ultimate sacrifice.”
That sacrifice “did not go in vain,” she said. “This generation and the next generation is going to make us proud.”