Corporal Joe Keeper MM, a member of the Norway House Cree Nation born at Walker Lake, Manitoba on 17 January 1886. A long-distance runner, Joseph Benjamin Keeper a member of the 1912 Canadian Olympic team.
1912 Olympics
Joseph Benjamin Keeper won seven-mile road races (11,265 m) in 1910 and 1911. In 1911, he set a national record for the 10-mile run (16,093m) and became Manitoba’s representative at the Dominion Championships in Montreal.
His second-place finish to an American runner in the three-mile event (4,828 m) resulted in Keeper being selected to join the Canadian Olympic Team for the 1912 Stockholm Summer Olympics. He participated in the 5,000 and 10,000m events and placed fourth in the latter. Keeper is still the highest-placing Canadian ever at the Olympic Games in the 10,000m event.
203rd Battalion
Keeper 235021 enrolled in the 203rd (Winnipeg Rifles) Battalion of the CEF on 1 May 1916 at Norway House, Manitoba. On 8 June, appointed acting corporal. He sailed from Halifax with his unit on the SS GRAMPIAN on 24 October, and arrived in Liverpool, England, on 4 November. From there, the unit left for Bramshott, a major camp for Canadians.
The 203rd organized in February 1916 under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel J. E. Hansford. Mobilized at Winnipeg and recruited in Winnipeg to be a temperance battalion. Embarked from Halifax 26 October 1916 aboard SS GRAMPIAN, and later disembarked in England on 5 November 1916 with a strength of 32 officers, 956 other ranks. Absorbed by 18th Canadian Reserve Battalion on 12 January 1917.
Norway House Troops
Also enrolled with the 203rd from Norway House:
- George Magnus Brown 235026
- George Brander Campbell 235024
- Thomas Evans 235101
- Sandy Laugher 235018
- James Alexander C McLeod 235019
- Stanley Simpson McLeod 235013
- John James Menow 235012
- Matthew Nackaway 235104
- Eric Olaf Olson (b. Sweden) 235030
- Donald Robinson 235016
- Alexander Saunders 235105
- Alfred Settee 235015
- Henry Johnson Swanson 235029
- John Swanson 235119
- Jude Henry Swanson 235027
- Elijah Tait 235125
- James Whiskey 235014
The 107th Pioneer Battalion
Organized in November 1915 under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Glen Campbell, formerly of the Canadian Field Artillery. Mobilized at Winnipeg, and recruited in Winnipeg. Embarked from Halifax 19 September 1916 aboard OLYMPIC, and later disembarked England 25 September 1916 with a strength of 32 officers, 965 other ranks. Drafts of 170 to 16th Battalion, 200 to 1st Canadian Mounted Rifles and 70 to 44th Battalion in December 1916.
Timber Wolves of War
The unit became known as the “Timber Wolves of War”. Roughly half of the 1,000 soldiers in this outfit were Indigenous Manitobans. By designating the 107th a pioneer battalion, in which soldiers carried out not only engineering tasks but also those of regular infantry, LCol Campbell was able to keep a large number of his men together, and the 107th persisted. As his great-grandson, Glen Campbell, said recently: “He would do anything for his men. Married to the daughter of Chief Keeseekoowenin, he had great respect for Canada’s First Nations people, which he inherited from his father, HBC chief factor Robert Campbell. And (he felt) that given the chance, First Nations soldiers could be just as good as any soldiers. And they proved Glen was right.”
France
Disembarked in France on Sunday morning, 25 February 1917 as a pioneer battalion, and later reinforced by 11th Canadian Reserve Battalion. In huts at Ecoivres on 1 March 1917, and immediately began working on Ammunition Dumps while other parties proceeded to MAISON BLANCHE for instructional purposes. Training in Physical Instruction and Bayonet Fighting carried on by the remainder of the battalion.
First casualty due to heart failure of a man from D company on 10 March 1917. Private Sinclair buried at Aubigny Communal Cemetery Extension. The following day, a wounded Other Rank died in hospital at Aux Rietz. Lance-Corporal Done buried at Ecoivres Military Cemetery.
Battle of Vimy Ridge
During the Battle of Vimy Ridge, the 107th employed at MAISON BLANCHE burying cables, improving communications and working on the Light Railway lines. By 19 April 1917, 400 yards of steel laid on Light Railway towards the Commandant’s House.
In 1917, Keeper joined Tom Longboat to win an inter-Allied cross-country championship near Vimy Ridge. Longboat, Keeper, and other First Nation long-distance runners A. Jamieson and John Nackaway served as dispatch carriers for the 107th Pioneer Battalion.
On 2 July 1917, all men permitted to attend the Corps Sports at Camblain L’Abbe. Corporal Keeper 2nd, Private Longboat 3rd in the mile race on 6 July 1917. Private Buckley 2nd in 220 yards race.
Battle of Hill 70
On the first day, the three companies of about 200 men each, lost 21 dead and 130 badly wounded. Private Anderson, a Cree from Saskatchewan, won the Military Medal for his bravery.
Private George Brander Campbell, son of William and Nancy Campbell, of Norway House, Manitoba, died serving with the 44th Battalion on 23 August 1917. Known Only to God.
Death of LCol Campbell
Lt-Colonel Glen Campbell earned two Mentions in Dispatches and the DSO during his time in Command. His success in raising the 107th Pioneer Battalion and holding it together in exhausting and dangerous work evidence of his strong character. But, his own health suffered greatly. On 13 October 1917, as the Battalion readied for the attack on Passchendaele, admitted to a British general hospital at Camiers with a renewed bout of his kidney trouble.
Eight days later the battalion’s founder was dead and later buried in the nearly Etaples Military Cemetery, France.
1st Canadian Engineers Battalion
Upon reorganization, Joe joined 1st Battalion, Canadian Engineers. Organized in France in May 1918 under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Hugh C Walkem.
Nucleus formed from 1st Field Company and from a portion of the 107th Pioneer
Battalion. Remainder of personnel from Canadian Engineers Reinforcement Depot.
Corps Sports
Awarded the MM on 23 September 1918 for actions in preparation for the Battle of Cambrai.
March to the Rhine
On 8 December 1918, the battalion crossed the frontier in Germany at Petit-Thier, having been inspected by the Corps Commander and General Lindsay the previous day in Belgium.
Successive days and nights in Recht, Murringen, Kalenberg, Weischeim, Kinberg, and finally Kalk before crossing the Rhine at Cologne on 13 December 1918, this time inspected by the Army Commander (Currie at the Bonn crossing).
The battalion finally leaves Cologne for Boneppe, Belgium on 11 January 1919. In February, the town placed out of bounds to all troops owing to the prevalence of influenza.
On 15 March 1919, Joe’s widowed mother Matilda Keeper died at Norway House, Manitoba. On a wet and cold 24th of March, the troops entrained at Charleroi, passed their former training grounds at Tinques on the 26th, and in the port of Le Havre the following day. Arrival at Liphook, England on 29 March 1919. At Bramshott Camp, by the end of April 1919, the battalion had sailed for home, but Joe remained behind – he had an invitation to the Inter-Allied Games.
Inter-Allied Games
Joe sailed for Canada on 13 August 1919, and finally discharged at MD No. 10 on 27 August 1919 in Winnipeg. He soon ran in a few events in Winnipeg, but was overshadowed by younger runners.
Return to Norway House
In 1921, Corporal Joe Keeper MM left Winnipeg and returned to Norway House. He worked for the Hudson’s Bay Company post there for 30 years and raised a family before he retired in 1951.
By 1969, Keeper a patient at Winnipeg’s Deer Lodge Hospital, a facility for Veterans. During an interview, he joked with a reporter, “I couldn’t walk five yards, much less five miles.”
Corporal Joe Keeper MM died at Deer Lodge Hospital, 29 September 1971, at 85 years of age. Buried in Section 47 at Brookside Cemetery, Winnipeg. The final resting place for more than 10,000 military service members, in 2023 Ottawa deemed the cemetery a national historic site.
After his death, Keeper inducted into the Canadian Olympic Hall of Fame in 1977, the Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame in 1984, the Manitoba Runners’ Association Hall of Fame in 2006 and Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame in 2015.
Canadian actress, film producer and former Member of Parliament Tina Keeper the grandchild of Joe Keeper.
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