Local military historian investigates

A Cambusbarron military historian has been looking into the story of indigenous Canadian soldiers whose final resting place is Stirling.

Former reservist Francis Mackay spotted the name of Cree First Nation soldier Nona Chakasuam in Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemetery registers along with fellow Canadian Forestry Corps soldiers Peter Jakazom and Pte James Keeask.

Nineteen-year-old Nona Chakasuam was from remote Fort Albany on the shores of Hudson Bay and had been based at Stirling Castle while serving in the Canadian Forestry Corps during World War One.

Nona Chakasuam’s name is on a large stone slab within Stirling’s Valley Cemetery. A second Cree First Nation soldier, Peter Jakazom, is buried in Ballengeich Cemetery as is Pte Keeask.

Eighty-year-old Francis, a former catering manager at Stirling Royal Infirmary, who lives in Cambusbarron with wife Jennifer said: “[The discovery] was really just happenstance. I was looking through the register and noticed the name of Nona Chakasuam and the other names thereafter.

“I had never come across a name like that before and that got me thinking about their background. I’m guessing these soldiers would have volunteered before the Canadian government introduced conscription.

“I imagined they were based at Stirling Castle and worked in forestry in the Stirling area.”

Francis has written several books on military history including two battlefield guides for the First World War Italian Front where some Stirling men served.

According to the Canadian Virtual War Memorial online Nona Chakasuam died on July 7, 1918 and Peter Jakazom on February 23, 1919, aged 21. James Keeask died on February 18, 1919 aged 26.

They are also mentioned on ancestry message boards where it is stated that Peter Jakazom and James Keeask both died at Stirling’s Combination Hospital of TB.

Peter Jakazom is listed as a furrier and private in the 109th Canadian Forestry Corps and James Keeask as a trapper. Nona Chakasuam died of pneumonia.