Wight Inlet

Wight Inlet (62°15′N 068°13′W / 62.250°N 68.217°WCoordinates: 62°15′N 068°13′W / 62.250°N 68.217°W) is a body of water in Nunavut's Qikiqtaaluk Region. It lies in western Hudson Strait, forming a wedge into Baffin Island's Meta Incognita Peninsula and the western slopes of the Everett Mountains, is named after Sergeant James Edward Freeman Wight, RNWMP and RCMP #6296.

Wight served in the force From September 23, 1914 to March 14, 1945 in "K," Depot, "G," "A," and "H" Divisions. He was another from a family of members in the Force: Hos brother, Corporal Robert Wight (#4961), served from 1909 to 1917 and his son, Constable Alexander Wight (#15526), also served in the north. (In 1953 his son was at the Lake Harbor detachment, Northwest Territories. With radio instructions from a doctor, he performed a successful appendectomy on an Inuit, Mingeeneeak, with the local Hudson's Bay Company factor, Mr. Pilgrim. The operation undoubtedly saved Mingeeneeak's life.)

In 1915, with Inspector (later Assistant Commissioner) Charles D. LaNauze (O.180) and Corporal Denis Withers (#4794), he made a fourteen-month patrol by dog teamfrom Fort Norman to the mouth of the Coppermine River in the Northwest Territories, seeking two Inuit (Sinnisiak and Kormick) who were alleged to have murdered two missionaries.

In the First World War he volunteered for service in the RNWMP "A" Squadron cavalry draft to serve in France with the Canadian Expeditionary Force as #2772629. On his return from the war he was sent back north with the force.

While in charge of the Pangnirtung detachment during February and March 1926, he made another long dog team patrol. He completed this 2070 Kilometer trip with Constable Thomas Tredgold (#9295), travelling from Pangnirtung to Lake Harbour and back.

He died on July 5, 1959, at Yarmouth, Nova Scotia.

References

Honored in Places Remembered Mounties Across Canada William J. Hulgaard and John W White Pages 180, 181