Swedes in the Great War 1914-1918

Carl Frederick Youngberg and Erik Olaf Olson stand almost next to each other at the cemetery in the French village of Aulnoy. They fought for the 44th Canadian Infantry Battalion, and died on November 1st, 1918.

In between them there is a Nels Anderson. He also fell for the 44th Battalion, on November 1st, 1918. Does he also have any Swedish connection? Let’s find out.

Earlier in July this year I did a small tour to visit the Swedes who fought and fell in the Great War. The main purpose of this tour was to visit and take photos of the headstones of the Swedes that I have in my database. There is still some of them left to take photos of, but that I have to leave for the next tour.

One of the last cemeteries to visit on the tour was the CWGC Aulnoy Communal Cemetery in the village of Aulnoy in northern France.

Carl Frederick Youngberg

Carl was born as Carl Ferdinand Ljungberg in Wä parish, Kristianstad parish, in Skåne, Sweden, June 2nd, 1896. He was raised by his mother Jenny Christina Ljungberg and his father Adolf Ljungberg, together with his six siblings.

The family emigrated to the large continent in the West already in 1902, and initially arrived in Quebec, Canada. In 1905 the family is mentioned in the Minnesota Census. The family lived in St. Paul, Minnesota, when Carl decided to sign up for the Canadian Expeditionary Force in June 1917.

However, Carl was also drafted for the American Army, in the draft of June 5th, 1917. The reason for why he decided to sign up for the Canadian Army instead, wasn’t known to me in the beginning , but I read in the Canadian attestation papers that he had some low values when it came to his eyesight, but not as bad that he couldn’t fulfill his duties.

I later found documents from his family that said he wanted to join the U.S Navy, but was rejected due to defective vision. The family believed that this was the reason for him to join the Canadian Army.

Carl went over to Etaples in France in the beginning of September 1918. His unit, the 44th Canadian Infantry battalion, was active in the Hundred days Offensive, and the battalion was active in the area of MONT HOUY WOOD and FAMARS south of Valenciennes, France.

On the first of November 1918, Carl was initially reported Missing, but later on reported as Killed in Action. He died at an age of 22.

Erik Olaf Olson

Erik Olaf Olson was born as Olof Erik Olsson in Gustavi parish, Gothenburg, Sweden, on September 21, 1881. He emigrated to North America already in 1901, just before he was supposed to make his conscript period for the Swedish Army, when he became 21. He was only 19 when he left Sweden.

Erik was married to Emma Olson, and they lived in Winnipeg, Canada, when Erik signed the Canadian military attestation papers in May 1916. Erik was quite old when he signed the papers.

He embarked in Liverpool in December 1916, and later went over to France in March 1917, and was attached to the 44th Battalion, from his earlier battalion, the 203rd.

Sergeant Olson was leading his platoon in the same area as Youngberg, when he was killed instantly by an enemy bullet, on November 1st, 1918, during the capture of Aulnoy.

Nels Anderson

In between the headstones of Youngberg and Olson, there is the headstone of N. Anderson. He was Nels Anderson, born in Youngstown, Iowa, North America, On September 7th, 1898. But I have also found some documents that may indicate that he was born in 1900, or even in 1902.

Nels lived in Granger, Iowa, when he signed his Canadian military attestation papers in Winnipeg, Canada, in February 1918.

His father, Nils Anderson, was born in Sweden in 1867, and emigrated from Sweden in 1885. There is a note in the archives that he immigrated to North America in 1894. There he got married to Mary Ann Anderson, born in Illinois, to Scottish parents.

Nels also fought in the capture of Aulnoy. Before he was attached to the 44th battalion, he was a part of the Depot Battalion, Manitoba regiment, who was responsible for training and equipping the soldiers before the were set for active duty.

Nels was also killed during November 1st, 1918.

It is always interesting with soldiers living in North America but were fighting for the Canadian Expeditionary Force in the Great War.

For me as a Swede it is also interesting to visit the cemetery and take a photo of three soldiers in a row, who have connection to Sweden. That makes the Swedish emigration history more interesting. I will continue the research about the connection between Swedish emigration and the Great War.

So, you military guides out there, now you have another story to tell on your tour, when visiting the Aulnoy Communal Cemetery.

May they rest in peace, they are not forgotten.

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.

I continue to write my stories about the soldiers I visited on my last tour to the battlefields in Belgium and France, earlier in July, 2025. This time I will tell you the background of two Swedish born soldiers who fell in the Great War. One of them is particularly interesting.

Axel Mattson and Joseph Edward Nelson

I will start to tell the story about Axel Mattson. Axel was born as Axel Manfred Abrahamsson on May 31st, 1887, in the parish of Backaryd, in the landscape of Blekinge, Sweden. He was raised by his parents Inga Andersdotter and Mattis Abrahamsson.

His military surname Mattson came probably from his father’s name Mattis, and he probably had the surname Mattisson, or Mattsson and that became Mattson when he emigrated to North America in February 1906. They lived in a small farm area called Pinkaremåla, which later became Ekeby. They changed the name to Ekeby in 1907 as “Pinkare” didn’t sound proper (someone who is peeing in english). The word pinkare came from metallurgy work from the beginning.

Axel lived in Mossbank, Saskatchewan, Canada, when he signed his Military attestation papers in Moose Jaw in November 1917. He arrived with his unit in England in April 1918, and was sent to France in August 1918.

He belonged to 1st Canadian Mounted Rifles when he was killed in action, just about a month later, on September 17th, 1918, in the area around Rumaucourt, east of Arras in France. His company were in reserve when they were hit by artillery fire, and Axel was hit by shrapnel and killed instantly.

As his Next of Kin he stated his mother, Inga Mattsson (actually Inga Abrahamsson) and she received the remaining things from her son Axel, and an amount of SEK 511,33. She was then, in 1919, living in the farm of Hjorthålan, just north of Backaryd. She became a widow in 1910.

Joseph Edward Nelson

Joseph Edward Nelson was born as Josef Edvard Nilsson in Torsås parish, in Kalmar, Småland, Sweden, on August 8th, 1893.

He was raised by his mother Ingrid Maria Nilsdotter and his father Nils Gustaf Pettersson. They lived together with a lot of other people in a kind of institution, and they may have been a poor family, which could have been one of the reasons for Josef to emigrate to North America in April 1911.

Joseph signed his Canadian Military attestation papers in March, 1915, as Joseph EDWIN Nelson, not Joseph EDWARD Nelson, and in the Canadian archives there is a mix of these two names which makes it hard to sort out if the documents are connected to EDWIN or EDWARD, as it is a JOSEPH EDWARD NELSON as well who signed up for the Canadian forces but survived the war.

In the attestation papers he wrote “Korsos” as his place of birth, but it should be “Torsås”. I don’t know the reason for why he wrote Edwin instead of Edvard.

In the archives of the Commonwealth Grave Commission, it says that his father is Peter Nelson from Winnipeg, but that is probably wrong.

In the canadian service documents, it says that Joseph got “permission to marry“, and it seems that he went back to Bramshott Camp to marry Gertrude, who is mentioned in his will as his wife, and also in the document over his marriage in October 1917.

Here I can also see that his father is mentioned as Peter Nelson. I wonder who this Peter was? I am still not convinced over who this Joseph Edward Nelson was, but every document in the Canadian archives and the service number of this soldier, correlates with the information connected to the Swedish soldier Josef Edvard Nilsson, who called himself Joseph Edwin Nelson in the attestation papers.

Joseph Edward Nelson fought with his unit, 1st Canadian Mounted Rifles, in the area around Sauchy-Cauchy, east of Arras in France, when he was Killed in Action, September 12, 1918, five days before Axel Mattson.

Will be continued …

Joseph Edward Nelson and his wife Gertrude got a son named Geoffrey Edward Nelson, born in May 1918, who was a Sergeant in a Glider Pilot Regiment, in Army Air Corps. He died in July 1943 and his name is on the Cassino Memorial in Italy. May he rest in peace.

During my last “Swedes at the Western Front” tour as a guide, one of the participants, the Swedish medal collector and historian Lars Ahlkvist, brought some medals with him which had belonged to Swedish born soldiers, and told the stories behind them. The other day we texted each other regarding one of the soldiers, and I remembered that one of the medals he showed us actually belonged to Joseph Edward Nelson!

We did not visited him on that tour, but suddenly the story above, in my blog post, became more alive. Below some photos of the medal which belonged to Joseph Edward.

Both Axel and Joseph fought for the same unit in the offensive movements against the Germans, called the “Hundred days offensive”. They are now buried in the very beautiful cemetery in Vis-en-Artois, south east of Arras.

It will be interesting to continue to search about Joseph Edward Nelson, who he actually was, and who it is that are buried in the cemetery. Maybe we will never be able to solve the issue. However, I took a photo of the headstone with the Swedish flag as I am quite convinced it is the Swedish soldier of Josef Edvard Nilsson.

They are not forgotten.

As you can see in my earlier blog posts, I am telling the stories about the soldiers I visited on my last tour to the battlefields in Belgium and France, earlier in July, 2025

This is the story about the seventh soldier I visited during my tour.

Oskar Oder

Oskar Oder was born as Olof Oskar Öder i Järvsö parish in Gävleborgs county, Sweden, on May 11th, 1894.

He was raised by his mother Anna Andersdotter Forsgren and his father, the former soldier Olof Öder. Oscar was born before his parents were married and is therefore noted as “illigemite” in the book of birth, in the Swedish archives.

Oskar emigrated from Sweden to North America in April 1913, and when he signed his Canadian Military attestation papers he stated that he lived in Dubuc, Saskatchewan, Canada. He stated that his Next of Kin was his grandfather Olof Öder, but he was his father. The reason for why he said that is unknown. He also wrote his place of birth as “Jarvesund” but that should be Järvsö in Swedish.

Oskar is one of three soldiers in my research who were born in Järvsö parish.

I have always wondered if they were interviewed during this process, and that another person filled the papers in for them, or if they wrote the information by themselves. Maybe it was a combination. If anyone knows, don’t hesitate to inform me.

Oskar arrived to England with his unit on May 14th, 1917, and was then sent overseas to France on September 7th, 1917, and joined the 27th Canadian Infantry Battalion. Oscar is the only soldier in my research who belonged to the 27th battalion.

He was killed in action on April 26th, 1918, when he was fighting with his unit in the area east of Mercatel in France. The unit diary stated that one Other Ranks was killed during the day, and that was Oskar. The casualty card says only “killed in action” and mention the location as “Trenches east of Mercatel” It could be close to the area seen on the map below.

Oskar is buried in Bellacourt Military Cemetery in the commune of Riviere in France. It is a very nice cemetery built on a little slope, just below a field.

He will not be forgotten.