Ninety-nine years ago this November, people in Hamilton received word that a First World War soldier from the city was killed in France.

His name was Pte. James Franklin, and the caption beneath his one column photo on the front page of the Nov. 10, 1916, edition of The Hamilton Spectator said he was a "well known local messenger boy" who "enlisted with his employer Harold Parke, who was recently reported wounded."

But what was not realized at the time — and something that has been largely forgotten — was that Franklin appears to be the first black soldier from Canada and North America to die in the war.

There were an estimated 500 black soldiers from Canada — mostly from Nova Scotia — wearing the Canadian uniform during that epic war, and of those about half a dozen were killed, according to Alan Smith, who has been researching Franklin'shistory since 2008.

He says he is "99.9 per cent certain" that Franklinwas the first black soldier from Canada to fall on the battlefield. And because the U.S. did not join the war until the following spring, he believes Franklin was the first from North America as well.

Franklin's story was recently featured by The Canadian Encyclopedia in an online entry written by Smith's son, Thomas Toliver Smith. A painting of Franklin by Dominic Laporte was commissioned by the family, and Smith, a retired school teacher, is using it to help spread word about the soldier who somehow slipped under the radar of historians.

Officials from the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders as well as the Royal Hamilton Light Infantry say they were unaware of Franklin until Smith came knocking on their door a few months ago.

When Franklin enlisted, he joined the 91st Canadian Highlanders, which was the forerunner of the Argylls. From there, he transferred to the 76th Battalion and then the 4th Battalion, which is perpetuated by the Royal Hamilton Light Infantry. So he has connections to both of the city's most well known regiments.

"Unfortunately, blacks and East Indians often don't get credit for what they did in the First World War and Second World War," says Stan Overy, curator of the Royal Hamilton Light Infantry Museum.

For years, he said, he was aware of a historical photo of members of the 76th Battalion that had one black soldier in the back row. But he was never sure who it was. Now he realizes it was Franklin.

Robert (Doc) Fraser, regimental historian for the Argylls, says he did not know about Franklin until recently. "It's a fascinating story. It reminds you that they (black soldiers) were there in the war."

Meanwhile, the Mississippi Armed Forces Museum, in Shelby, Miss., is set to begin construction of an exhibit to honour Franklin, says museum director Chad Daniels. Franklin was born in Whitaker, Miss., before travelling north to Hamilton with his parents when he was two years old.

Franklin's dad, Walter Van Twiller Abraham Franklin, was a farmer, jeweller, watchmaker and inventor who travelled to Canada in search of a better life for his family.

Smith became interested in the Franklin story while researching the family tree of his wife, Nerene Virgin, a journalist, actress and television host who is the great-granddaughter of escaped slave Thomas John (Howard) Holland.

Virgin's grandfather lived for a time at the Stinson Street Boys' Home more than a century ago. Records showed there were three black children living there, with one of them being Franklin.

Franklin lived in the orphanage after his mother died when he was seven. At the time, it was common for orphanages to take in so-called half-orphans because single parents usually could not manage child care, Smith said.

He stayed at the home until he was 14 when he moved out and found a job at Parke and Parke drugstore, a major local business at the time that is remembered for a giant thermometer on its building downtown.

Franklin enlisted in July 1915 under Harold Parke, a son of one of the owners of the drugstore, who was commanding officer of the 91st Canadian Highlanders. Parke signed Franklin's attestation papers at a time when there was opposition in some circles to black men being part of the Canadian military.

The papers described Franklin as being 5 feet, 7 inches, and wrote "Negro" across the spaces on the form for eye, hair and complexion colour. His date of birth was listed as Oct. 12, 1897, making him in his 18th year. But Smith believes — based on other documents he has unearthed — that Franklin misrepresented his age and was actually two years younger.

Smith also found a copy of a front-page article about Franklin from the Jan. 5, 1918, edition of the Chicago Defender, a weekly newspaper mostly for African American readers.

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Under the headline "Brave lad gives life for Canada, in France," the article said: "Somewhere in France a huge grandmother shell exploded with terrific force inside the English lines, blowing to eternity Pte. Jas Franklin, a lad only 16 years of age ..." (he was) "the first Canadian of his race to die upon the fields of France."

Documents about Franklin are available online through Library and Archives Canada. They include his will in which he wrote "In case of death I leave $250 of my insurance by the City of Hamilton, Ont., Canada to St. Paul's AME Church ..." St. Paul's was the former name of the Stewart Memorial Church on John Street North. The church was founded in 1835 by escaped slaves and other members of Hamilton's black community.