It is always interesting to look deeper into Swedish connections through information from families that contacts me through my web page. The Wilhelmsson family had a relative that fought for Canada in the Great War and survived. They also had a relative who fought for the Americans, Gunnard E Carlson (Edvard Gunnar), however, he sadly fell in the area of Belleau Wood in July, 1918.
I have just received some information from the same family, that they also had a relative who fought for the Australian Imperial Forces (AIF), and this soldier was sadly killed in action in Gallipoli in 1915.
I have earlier written about Swedish born soldiers who fought and fell during the Gallipoli Campaign, and one of the articles can be found here.
Carl William Leyon just reached the age of 23, when he was killed on the Turkish beaches around the area of Gaba Tepe, on May 2nd, 1915. Gaba Tepe area is located around four kilometer south of the area called ANZAC Cove, which was the area where the Australian and the New Zealand troops landed in late April 1915. Carl was fighting in the 4th Infantry Battalion, within the 1st Brigade, in the AIF.
Carl died of wounds received in action, on the Hospital ship “Dongola” and was buried at sea between “Seddul Bahr” (Seddülbahir) and Alexandria, mentioned in the documents from the Australian Archives. I will try to find out more details about when he got wounded, as he also could have been a part of the landing campaign on April 25th, 1915.
Carl William is mentioned in the Australian Archives to be among the soldiers in the photo above, but it is not known who of the soldiers he was of those portrayed in the photo.
When I look in the diary from the 4th Infantry Battalion, I can read about the preparations they made for they upcoming planned action for May 4th, 1915. The plan was to siege the terrain of the area called Gaba Tepe (also called Kabatepe or Kaba Tebe). The area was already a target on the beach landings on April 25th, but was not taken at that time. The new attempt to take the area was planned to take part on May 4th. Below a page from the actual unit diary.
The Swedish connections.
Carl William Leyon was born in Heathcote in the state of Victoria in Australia, on June 2nd, 1891. His father, Nils Erik Pettersson, was born in Asa parish, Kronoberg county, in the landscape of Småland, in the southern part of Sweden. Carl was raised in Australia, together with his six siblings, by his parents, his mother Euphemia Smith and his father Nils Erik Pettersson. One brother of Carl died before Carl was born.
Nils Erik was born on April 18th, 1852, and was raised by his parents, his mother Martha Nilsdotter, and his father Peter Lejon.
Nils Erik’s father, Peter, was a corporal in the Swedish Army, and the family lived in a small house, “soldattorp”, called a “soldier’s hut”, which was a special appointed house for soldiers, payed by the Army, to a farmer, who was supposed to keep it in a specified state. That was not always the case, and many soldiers had a hard life at that time. Peters Soldattorp was called No 58.
The place is stilled called the “Lejons” as you can see on the maps below, north-east of the parish of Asa today.
Below a typical “Soldattorp” as it could have looked like.
Nils Erik had his surname Pettersson from his father Peter, and Nils Erik later became Nelius Edward Leyon in Australia. It is nice to see how the Swedish surname Lejon (Lion in English) became Leyon, and that his son, the ANZAC soldier, Carl William, had this surname, which had its roots from the Swedish surname Lejon.
This it what sometimes makes it hard to trace the connections to the emigrants who left Sweden, who got their surnames simplified to be easier to pronounce and handle in the daily life in their new country.
Normally this was more common among the Swedes who emigrated to North America. The Swedes who emigrated to countries connected to the Commonwealth, kept in most cases their spelling of the surnames, although sometimes with small changes.
Nils Erik is believed to have emigrated from Sweden to Norway, and later had emigrated to Australia from Norway. Below it can be Nils Erik in the passenger list from 1879, in which there is a Nils Pettersson from Norway.
Nils Erik was married to Euphemia Smith in 1881. Nile Erik sadly died of illness in 1897, of the symptoms called Pleurisy, according to the text from the Hospital document in Adelaide. Carl William’s mother, Euphemia, died already in 1907.
Carl William Leyon is today commemorated at Lone Pine Memorial in Turkey.
It is always very interesting to collect information from data that is sent to me through descendants from the soldiers who fought in the Great War.
May Carl William rest in peace.
If you have an ancestor who fought in the Great War and want to know more, feel free to contact me through the link in the main menu.