Johnson Paudash

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Johnson Paudash
Born29 January 1875
Hiawatha, Ontario, Canada
Died26 October 1959(1959-10-26) (aged 84)
Buried
Riverside Cemetery, Lindsay, Ontario, Canada
Allegiance Canada
Service/branchCanadian Expeditionary Force
Years of service1914–1918
RankLance Corporal
Service number59779
Unit21st Battalion (Eastern Ontario), CEF
Battles/warsWorld War I
AwardsMilitary Medal
RelationsFlorence Paudash (wife)

Lance Corporal Johnson Paudash MM (29 January 1875 – 26 October 1959) was an acclaimed Canadian sniper during the First World War.

Biography[edit]

Paudash, an Ojibwa native, joined the 21st Battalion (Eastern Ontario), CEF on 11 November 1914 at Kingston, Ontario (his younger brother, George Paudash, 24, also enlisted at the same time). After training he embarked aboard the SS Metagama on 6 May 1915 and sailed to Great Britain. In July 1915 he was promoted to lance corporal and in mid-September of the same year arrived in France. On 22 September, whilst fighting at Messines, Paudash was shot in the right leg. After recuperating from this wound, Paudash rejoined his unit south of Ypres in Belgium. It was here that Paudash showed the skills required to be a sniper.

Post war[edit]

Paudash became a civil servant with the federal government. He was considered by the Indian Commission to be "almost as smart as any lawyer regarding Indian treaties or legal paper".[1] Johnson Paudash was responsible for bringing the commission's attention to the errors regarding lands described in or thought to be governed by earlier treaties and helped correctly define the treaty borders for the 1923 treaty.[2]

References[edit]

  1. ^ C.O.A., p. 94
  2. ^ Judgments of the Supreme Court of Canada Archived 18 September 2006 at the Wayback Machine