Canada and Sunta Gouger Singh

Sunta Gouger Singh: At the outset of the war, most of the men who enlisted were immigrants most obviously the British who felt a strong tie to the homeland. But there were people from many backgrounds, both new and old to Canada. Among them were 10 Sikhs, according to The Star. Singh was born in Lahore, Punjab, India, in 1881 and signed up for service in Montreal. On his attestation papers, complexion has been crossed out and a word that looks like caste is written in its place: Rugepoot. E. Indian, which is perhaps a bungled interpretation of a Sikh Rajput and Sunta Gouger Singh was the first Sikh to die for Canada in the Great War, but his headstone in a rural cemetery outside Ypres is the only Canadian one without a maple leaf engraved on it. The Sikh population in Canada was small at the outset of WWI, dropping from 5,000 in 1907 to fewer than a couple of thousand by wartime, largely because restrictions, including the head tax, made immigration difficult. Those who were successful usually landed in Vancouver, though many were turned away most famously, the ship Komagata Maru was denied entry into Vancouver in 1914 because of exclusion laws. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.