Napoléon-Alexandre Comeau

Who is Napoléon-Alexandre Comeau?

Napoléon-Alexandre Comeau was a self-taught naturalist and Canadian government official. The city of Baie-Comeau, Quebec, is named after him, as well as this city's history museum building.

He was born in Les Îlets-Jérémie, not far from Betsiamites on the North Shore of the Saint Lawrence River. He was the eldest of eleven children. His father, Antoine-Alexandre Comeau, was an employee of the Hudson's Bay Company. His mother, Mary Luce Hall-Bedard, was of Irish origin. Napoleon-Alexandre Comeau spent his childhood in the woods in Labrador, at North-West River and the Mingan Islands, along with the Innu and Inuit, who taught him to hunt, fish and navigate.

As a teenager, he spoke fluent French, Montagnais, Naskapi and Inuktitut. In 1859 he was sent to an English school in Trois-Rivières, where he learned to read, write and speak English.