A footnote in Robin Winks, "The Blacks in Canada" (Yale UP, 1971) sources the New York "Crisis" Vol 15 (1918), p 248 and Vol 16 (1918) p 134 when stating that "in 1918 James Grant, a Negro from St. Catharines, received the Military Cross for taking a field gun through a critical salient while under heavy shelling" (p 314).
The Military Cross was awarded to officers (the Military Medal was for those in the ranks). So, is this another black military officer?
Calvin Ruck's "The Black Battalion" (1987) which celebrates the Canadian No 2 Construction Battalion which served in France, suggests that the unit's chaplain (William A White) was said to be the only black officer in British forces in World War One. The list of officers and men in this book had Captain James Stewart Grant from Ottawa as a battalion member and on page 14 says he was Captain James Stuart [sic] Grant.
The Times noted on 23 March 1918 that Captain J S Grant of the Nova Scotia Rifles had been transferred to the Canadian Forestry Corps.
Does anyone have access to The Crisis?
Jeff Green
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