From the News

Dated:

A Metis Sharpshooter

Nephew of Louis Riel Accounted for Thirty Germans Before They Got Him.

"This rifle was used by Sniper No. 1295, Pte. P. Riel (nephew of Louis Riel, of the Riel rebellion), 8th Battalion (90th Rifles), 1st Canadian Division, B.E.F. With it he accounted for 30 Germans, between March, 1915, and January 15, 1916, when he was killed by a shell at Anton's Farm, France, 128, near Messines."

This is the inscription engraved on a silver plate on the butt of a rifle which is on exhibition in the window of the British Columbia building in London, England. Capt. M. A. Fiset, of the 36th Field Battery, sends this information: "No one, I am sure, in London," he writes, "understood better than I all that this inscription meant. It is too eloquent to need the addition of any words. I beg, however, that the press be good enough to convey to the Riel family and all the Metis nation my personal grief and also my profound admiration for this hero of whom the Metis nation at large must be proud."

Private Louis Philippe Riel¹, enlisted with the Little Black Devils, the 90th Winnipeg Battalion, the second day the war was declared. With them he went over to England, and there having given a demonstration of his ability as a franc-tireur² was given carte blanche as a sniper, and just as soon as he entered the trenches with his unit, began his work.

In letters sent to friends here by his trench chum, another half-breed, formerly a student at the Qu'Appelle Industrial School, Riel is said to have disregarded potting Germans who were in the trenches. His chief work was to locate snipers from the German side and bring them down.

One story of his keen sight and ability to shoot straight is told when in late April, 1915, he brought down two German snipers within five minutes at a distance of about seven hundred yards. There were men and officers falling regularly on the Canadian side in a certain section of the trench. Riel was watching this spot where the shots came from and decided that snipers were at work. About seven hundred yards away he spied the tree and watched it for a minute, then deliberately aiming, fired and brought down the sniper, who was in one of the lower branches.

Just as soon as he had scratched another mark on his trusty rifle, he levelled again and from the top of the tree another enemy sniper fell to the ground. The incident was noticed by the officers and duly reported in dispatches. That night the officers looked for Riel, but he could not be found. He had joined a raiding party of the Munster Fusiliers and was out having his little time. The following morning he reported and proudly pointed to five additional marks on his rifle.