He fell for Leicester Regiment – The short story of Karl Eskil Adalrik Strömwall

It is not often I read about Swedish born soldiers who fought for specific British units. A large part of the Swedish born individuals fought for the Canadian and Australian units who indeed belonged to the Commonwealth and the British Expeditionary Forces. But in my research I sometimes find soldiers who belonged to British regiments. Here is a small story about one of them.

Karl Eskil was born in Gothenburg, Sweden, the second largest town in Sweden, his father, Karl Johan Strömwall was a banker in Sweden. His wife, Ebba Alfhilda Josefina Strömwall became a widow in 1911, and it seems that Karl Eskil was the last child in the family.

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Karl Eskil was born April 16, 1898, and right now I dont have any information when he left Sweden and became a clerk or similar at the Swedish Chamber of Commerce in London, but there is a note in the church book that his brother Tage went to England in February 1913, and probably Karl Eskil followed in his footsteps.

Karl Eskil registered for short service, for duration of the war, for Leicester Regiment in May 23 1917. Below you will find some documents from Ancestry about his registration in Leicester Regiment and some other documentation.

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Karl Eskil belonged to the Leicester Regiment 8th battalion, and he was quite young when he was taken on strength in 23rd of May 1917. He was fighting near the area of Gheluveld SE of Ypres, and the unit was at camp near Fitzclarence Farm. He was wounded in action by gun shot wounds. He died October 17, 1917, age 21, probably at the 3rd casualty clearing station in France and buried at Ljissenthoek Military Cemetery.

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Karl Eskil is the last soldier in my report who fell in Belgium part of the Western Front as I know about right now. I am now looking forward to when I can go down to the battlefields again and visit the places where the soldiers fell, and where they are buried or commemorated.

Please stay tuned for upcoming reports.