Rediscovering Private Hasan Amat: Canada’s First Muslim Soldier Killed in the First World War

Warrant Officer Daniyal Elahi, 337 Queen’s York Rangers Royal Canadian Army Cadets

Growing up, I often felt as though Muslim Canadians were a recent part of this country — as if our connection began only in 1965, when my grandfather immigrated from Pakistan. In school, the Canadian soldiers we learned about seemed to share the same background and the same story. Nothing suggested that someone like me, a young Muslim Army Cadet, had any place in that history.

That changed when I discovered Private Hasan Amat.

His name first appeared to me not in my history textbooks, but in a passing online reference. A Malay Muslim seaman born in Singapore in 1894, he enlisted twice in Canada, trained in England, and ultimately died fighting with the 1st Canadian Infantry Battalion at Hill 70 in 1917. The more I read, the more incredible his story became — and the more confused I felt that I had never heard it before.

My family and I, through our public history project Our Shared Sacrifice, obtained his full service file from Library and Archives Canada (LAC). Thirty-seven pages, filled with fragments of a life: his attestation papers, his medical records, his pay sheets, the two wills he signed, and the short, devastating entry confirming his death on that fateful day of August 20, 1917. These were not abstract facts. They were the pieces of a young man’s journey, recorded in his own hand.

Private Hasan Amat’s first attestation paper, completed in Halifax in January 1916. Library and Archives Canada, Personnel File of Private Hasan Amat (Reg. Nos. 478860 & 1075269).

Amat was born in Singapore and worked as a sailor, part of a huge maritime workforce that connected ports across Southeast Asia and the British Empire. At some point, he reached Halifax and enlisted with the Royal Canadian Regiment (RCR) on January 14, 1916. His religion is listed as “Mohamedan,” the term then used for Muslim — an important detail, given that the Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF) attestation form had no checkbox for Muslims, only space for Christian denominations and “Other.” The fact that he wrote it in himself makes him one of the earliest clearly identified Muslim soldiers to serve Canada.

After five months, he was discharged for medical reasons, but instead of giving up, he re-enlisted just two weeks later, this time with the 4th Overseas Pioneer Battalion in St. Andrews, New Brunswick. On his second attestation, under “Previous Military Service,” he wrote a short, memorable line:

“Five minutes in R.C.R. at Halifax.”

To me, that sentence reflects determination, resilience, and a sense of humour — qualities that made me admire him immediately.

His file shows that after re-enlisting, he travelled to England aboard the S.S. Metagama, trained at Bramshott Camp, and endured several illnesses, including influenza and bronchitis. Each time, he returned to duty. By early 1917, he was transferred to the 1st Canadian Infantry Battalion, a front-line unit with years of hard fighting behind it — Ypres, the Somme, Vimy Ridge.

During the summer of 1917, the Canadian Corps prepared for the assault on Hill 70, a strategic high ground overlooking Lens, France. The operation was planned by Lieutenant-General Arthur Currie, who expected the Germans to mount heavy counterattacks. He was right. The battle, which began on August 15, 1917, was brutal. Canadian soldiers advanced through smoke and heavy shelling; German forces countered with artillery, machine-gun fire, and gas.

On 20 August 1917, in the middle of these counterattacks, Private Hasan Amat was killed in action.

His body was never recovered. His name is carved on the Vimy Memorial, alongside more than 11,000 Canadians who have no known grave. There is no record that his family in Singapore ever learned what happened to him. The official notification was sent instead to his friend in Nova Scotia — the same man he had named as beneficiary in both his wills.

Hasan Amat’s name as it appears on the Canadian National Vimy Memorial, Pas-de-Calais, France

Why does this story matter now?

For me, as a young Canadian Muslim and a Warrant Officer with the 337 Queen’s York Rangers Army Cadets, discovering Amat’s life changed how I understood my country — and my place in it. Until then, I had never imagined that someone who shared my faith had stood in Canadian uniform more than a century ago. To learn that not only had a Muslim soldier served in 1916, but had died fighting for Canada, made me feel seen in a new way.

It also changed how I thought about Canadian history. Private Amat’s life shows that the CEF was never as uniform as we imagined. It included soldiers from Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, the Middle East as well as Indigenous soldiers. It included people whose names, faces, and stories do not appear in most textbooks. Canada’s story is wider and more global than many of us learn in school.

Recovering stories like Amat’s matters because it makes our remembrance more accurate. It brings back voices that were lost. And it shows every Canadian — particularly those from minority communities — that this country has always been shaped by people from many cultures.

Telling Private Hasan Amat’s story is a small step toward making that memory whole.

Resources and Further Reading

Canadian War Museum. “Canada and the First World War.” https://www.warmuseum.ca/firstworldwar/.

Commonwealth War Graves Commission. “Find War Dead.” https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/. (Database of 1.7 million Commonwealth war dead from both World Wars, includes Canadian casualties and Vimy Memorial records)

Cook, Tim. Shock Troops: Canadians Fighting the Great War, 1917–1918. Toronto: Viking Canada, 2008. (Provides additional context for Hill 70)

Library and Archives Canada. “Personnel Records of the First World War.” Database. https://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/military-heritage/first-world-war/personnel-records/Pages/list.aspx. (Searchable database of approximately 622,000 digitized Canadian Expeditionary Force service files)

Veterans Affairs Canada. “The Canadian Virtual War Memorial.” https://www.veterans.gc.ca/en/remembrance/memorials/canadian-virtual-war-memorial. (Registry of over 118,000 Canadians and Newfoundlanders who died in service since Confederation)

Warrant Officer Daniyal Elahi is a senior Army Cadet with the 337 Queen’s York Rangers and a youth historian working on Our Shared Sacrifice, a public history project dedicated to uncovering overlooked Canadian soldiers. He is passionate about inclusive remembrance and the diversity of Canada’s military past.