On an unseasonably warm winter day in January 1916, a 27-year-old man walked into the enlistment office in Winnipeg and volunteered to fight in the First World War that was ravaging Europe.

The only name he provided was Baboo. The official paperwork required a “Christian name,” but the Sikh man didn’t have one.

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Born in Punjab, India in 1888, he served for four years in a cavalry unit in Madras before immigrating to Canada. He was married and had a seven-year-old daughter named Margaret.

Someone added the name “John” in handwritten pen next to his typed name, and he became John Baboo.

It was not a popular time to enlist. Hundreds of thousands of soldiers had already died in the war and the horrors of trench warfare were being broadcast on the radio and in newspapers with no end in sight.

But Baboo wanted to help defend his new country.

Despite the racism and barriers many immigrants faced at the time,........

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