Private Hasan Amat
Private Hasan Amat was a Malay Muslim from Singapore who enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force at Halifax in January 1916. He was killed in action at the Battle of Hill 70 on 20 August 1917, serving with the 1st Battalion (Western Ontario Regiment), CEF. He is the first identified Muslim soldier killed in action serving with the Canadian Expeditionary Force, to our knowledge. His story was recovered through original archival research at Library and Archives Canada by Daniyal and Harris Elahi, Royal Canadian Army Cadets, 337 Queen's York Rangers, more than a century after his death.
Why this matters
The identification of Private Amat corrects the public record on Muslim service in the Canadian Expeditionary Force. Recent decades of CEF historiography have recovered the contributions of Black, Indigenous, Chinese-Canadian, and South Asian soldiers.
The story of a Malay Muslim from Singapore who travelled to Halifax to enlist, served as a pioneer in New Brunswick and England, and died at Hill 70 with a Western Ontario regiment expands the picture of who fought for Canada in the First World War. It also gives a single soldier a name and a record where there had been only an absence.
The commemorative bench and plaque planned for the Hill 70 Memorial in Loos-en-Gohelle, France, will be, to our knowledge, the first dedicated permanent commemorative memorial to a Canadian Muslim soldier of the First World War.
How the research happened
Daniyal first encountered Private Amat in passing during background reading for an earlier academic article in 2024. Amat was not the focus of that work and did not appear in the published article. In November 2024, a junior cadet at 337 Queen's York Rangers told Daniyal he wished he could see more people who looked like himself in stories of Canadian remembrance. Daniyal pursued Private Amat in earnest after that conversation, spending the following ten months tracing his service record before he and Harris founded Our Shared Sacrifice as an independent youth-led initiative in September 2025.
He pulled the personnel file at Library and Archives Canada (RG 150). The attestation paper recorded Amat's religion as Mohamedan, written in by hand by the medical officer over the printed form. Daniyal traced his service across four units: the Royal Canadian Regiment in Halifax, the 4th Pioneer Battalion in St. Andrews New Brunswick, the 5th Pioneer Battalion in England, and the 25th Reserve Battalion. Amat was struck off strength to the 1st Battalion (Western Ontario Regiment), CEF, on 17 May 1917, and was killed in action at Hill 70 three months later. The 1st Battalion war diary (LAC RG 9 III-D-3, Vol. 4914) records the action of August 1917. No known photograph of Private Amat survives. The attestation paper is the only surviving primary-source image of his enlistment.
Institutional recognition of this research:
- Commonwealth War Graves Commission, For Evermore. Memorial entry for Private Hasan Amat, contributed and accepted.
- Veterans Affairs Canada, Canadian Virtual War Memorial. Essay on Private Hasan Amat formally accepted by VAC Commemoration Division (March 2026), pending VAC platform transition.
- SITREP - Royal Canadian Military Institute (April/May 2026)
- Read the December 2025 article on ActiveHistory.ca
- ActiveHistory.ca — “Finding Private Amat: A Research Method for Recovering Overlooked Soldiers of the CEF” (June 2026). Joint article by Daniyal and Harris Elahi.
- Legion Magazine - commissioned feature on Private Hasan Amat, scheduled July/August 2027
- The Hill 70 Memorial - Commemorative bench and plaque, fully funded and approved by The Hill 70 Memorial board (April 2026). Loos-en-Gohelle, France. The Hill 70 Memorial board site survey is scheduled for June 2026, with installation planned for August 2026, ahead of the 109th anniversary of the Battle of Hill 70.
- Library and Archives Canada - Private Hasan Amat personnel file (public record, 37 pages)
Private Hasan Amat. Born Singapore. Killed at Hill 70, 20 August 1917. 1st Battalion, Canadian Expeditionary Force.