Devon Island is the Canada's sixth largest island, and the 27th largest island in the world at 55,247 km2 (21,331 sq mi).

The most northern cemetery in the world is located on uninhabited Devon Island in Canada’s Arctic archipelago in Nunavut Territory. Canada’s national police force, The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) had a detachment on this island in the village of Dundas Harbor from 1924 to 1933, and again from 1945 to 1951. Although the three officers placed there had no one to actually police, the purpose was simply to stake Canadian sovereignty over the area. Since 1951 this has been the world’s largest uninhabited island. It is located directly north of Baffin Island and to the west of Greenland.

Constable #7766 Victor Maisonneuve was born in 1899, and was the first RCMP officer to die on the island, on 16 June 1926. He committed suicide while alone at a seal hunting camp at Crocker Bay on the same island. About a year later, one of the other officers, Constable #9597 William Robert Stephens died when he accidentally shot himself while walrus hunting. He was born in 1902 and died 26 August 1927.

A Scottish whaler, by the name of John Davidson, along with the baby of an RCMP Constable have the only other marked graves in the cemetery. The baby, Davidee Panipakichoo was born premature in December 1950, but unfortunately without any hospital services for hundreds of miles around, he died several days later.

The whaler has quite an interesting story behind him. In 1885 he was in Canada’s vast and empty arctic with his crew, attempting to match the record of bagging 38,800 seals like they did during the spring off the coast of Newfoundland. While plying the seas he died from tuberculosis, and was buried by members of his crew at Fellfoot Point, on the other side of Devon Island. The Hudson Bay Company leased the RCMP offices between 1934 and 1936, and during this time Davidson’s marker was discovered at Fellfoot, dislodged and washed up on shore. Hudson Bay Company employees then placed the marker in the local graveyard and it was simply forgotten about for many years. A journal from C. Russell, the manager of the HBC post there wrote in his journal in July 1935 “A board was picked up on the east side of Maxwell Bay which originally had served to mark a grave, it apparently had been dislodged by the wind and blown or drifted to where it was found. It is inscribed as follows: – In memory of John Davidson, Peterhead, who died 1st August 1885, aged 42 years, S.S. ‘Resolute’, Dundee”.

In 2003 the C.C.G.S Louis St. Laurent stopped at Fellfoot Bay to do some searching, and eventually came across a shallow grave in the gravelly shore of the point. A replica of the original marker was placed at Davidson’s original grave site, and a small ceremony was held. Although the area is completely uninhabited today, it is visited once a year by the RCMP to ensure proper maintenance of the cemetery.

John’s original marker is now displayed at Nunatta Sunakkutaangit Museum in Iqaluit, Nunavut.

Read more:

A Peterhead loon far awa’ fae hame | The House and other Arctic Musings

Nunavut Cemetery Listings | CanadaGenWeb Cemetery Project

RCMP Graves

Northwest Passage – Canadian Arctic – Marine Expeditions | Ourheritage.net

Dundas Harbour | ghosttowns.com

Dundas Harbour | The House and other Arctic Musings