Olaf Fredin
Olaf had served in the Second Boer War between April and September in 1900, when Canadian units supported the British Forces in South Africa .
He stated that when he filled in his Canadian Military attestation papers in October 1916, to join the Canadian forces, who later went over to France, within the Canadian Expeditionary Force.
He also wrote that he was born in Wellington County, Ontario, Canada. His father John Fredin, in London, Ontario, was mentioned as his Next of Kin.
Who was actually Olaf Fredin, and was he born in Canada? No.
Olaf Fredin was born as Olof Fredin in Ystad, in the landscape of Skåne, Sweden, on August 2nd, 1878, and not on August 1st, as he stated in his attestation papers.
He was raised by his mother Bengta Lindström and his father Johan Fredin, among his three siblings.
I can understand why he stated the information he did in the papers, as he was only around three years old when the family emigrated to North America, in 1882. It is not easy to remember the details and he certainly felt Canadian when he joined the Canadian Expeditionary Force.
He is also mentioned to be a part of the Church of England, and not Lutheran, as many of the other Swedish emigrants, and that is also a sign of that the family adapted quite fast to a life in their new country. Olaf Seemed to have been married before and had a son in his earlier marriage, born in 1909. He was a widower according to his attestation papers.
As I mentioned in my earlier blog post about Joseph Edward Nelson, Olaf Fredin was also granted permission to marry, and he did so according to the archives, on March 28th, 1918, also in Bramshott Camp in Surrey, England.
From the 4th Reserve Battalion he joined the 47th Canadian Infantry Battalion, and Olaf served with his unit in the area between Haucourt and Dury, south east of Arras in France, when he was Killed in Action on September 2nd, 1918. He didn’t spend long time with his unit before he was killed by a shell which exploded close to him, just after they had taken the objective.
Olaf is today buried in the Dury Mill British Cemetery, France. I visited also the other Swede buried in the same cemetery, John Edward Falk. He was born i Örgryte parish, Gothenburg, Sweden. He belonged to 102nd Canadian Infantry Battalion when he was Killed in Action, the same day as Olaf. They may have participated in the battle of Drocourt-Queant Line, during 1-3 of September, 1918.
The cemetery is located in the middle of a field, and the best way to go to it, is from the north. I tried to reach it from the south east with car, it worked, but it wasn’t a good road at all, even if the sign pointed me in that direction.
May both of the Swedes in Dury Mill cemetery rest in peace, I will visit them more times.
They are not forgotten.