Swedes at The Western Front

Amanda Gustafva Svensdotter was born in Denmark December 19, 1871. She is noted in the Swedish Church books together with her sister, Hilda Vilhelmina Olsdotter, also born in Denmark. They are noted to live with their mother, Christina, but father unknown.

They are taken care of, which I translate into some kind of Poor relief, “fattigvården”, in the small parish of Göteryd, Kronobergs County in Sweden.

The small daughters doesn’t have the correct papers and I can imagine it must be hard to grow up in these conditions. Amanda later became Amanda Gustava Olson.

Amanda worked as a maid in different families in Kronobergs and Kristianstads Counties during her time in Sweden, and in 1895 she gives birth to a son, Oscar Sigfrid, who is born in February 27, 1895 in Västra Broby parish, Kristianstads county, Sweden. His father is also unknown, so in this family the mother and the son doesn’t knew who their fathers were.

There is a note in the church book that Oscar, before his first birthday, is taken care of his foster parents Asserina Nilsdotter and Nils Nilsson, already in October 29th, 1895.

Amanda left Sweden for North America in April, 1904, and later on became Amanda Erickson when she became married to Enoch William Erickson, from Uppland County in Sweden.

Oscar grew up together with his foster parents in the parish where he was born, Västra Broby in Kristianstads county. There is a note about his service within the Swedish Army, in the Crown Prince Cavalry, K7. Oscar left Sweden for North America in September 1912, which means that he was quite young when he did some kind of service in the Swedish Army.

In North America Oscar was drafted early in 1917. I have not yet found the registration form from the Draft, but some documents says that he was drafted right after the declaration of War. He lived in Chicago, Illinois, during his time in the states. He joined the 23rd Infantry Regiment in the 2nd Division, American Expeditionary Forces, and went over to France.

The first unit from the 2nd Division, AEF went over already in June 1917 and the last unit arrived in March 1918. Oscar probably arrived quite early within that time frame. the 1st and 3rd Battalions took over the line from Bouresches to Le Thiolet, in the Chateau Thierry area, relieving the Marines. These two battalions attacked late in the afternoon June 6th, gaining their objective with heavy losses.

Oscar had at this time the rank of 1st sergeant. Oscar was killed in action June 8th, 1918 in that area. He was buried in in some different places but later moved to Aisne-Marne American Cemetery.

The documents above shows a photo which is assumed to be Oscar Anderson. He looks quite young, and it can be from his period in the Swedish Army. The photo is found under his name at findmygrave.com, but his date of birth was from another Oscar Anderson.

The other documents describes his casualty card, where his mother’s name is mentioned on the back side of the card, Amanda Erickson. The last documents describes the situation when his body was exhumed from some old graves and later on moved to his final resting place.

The documents contains some very interesting information.

His mother Amanda was invited to participate on a Mother’s Pilgrimage trip to France in 1929, to be able to visit her sons grave. The next of Kin were offered to apply for a trip to Europe and were also asked if they wanted the body of their soldier to be left in Europe or transported to US. Amanda and her new husband must have chosen to let thye body of Oscar stay in Europe, and she took the offer of going on a pilgrimage trip to Europe, which she later on did in 1930.

Below you can look through some of the documents connected to that trip. They are really interesting to read and gives you a good picture of how well the US government took care of the realtives to the soldiers.

These types of documents are not scanned for every soldier who fell for the AEF, but the National Archive has scanned some of those soldiers who has a surname that begins with an “A”. I hope they will be able to scan more documents as these files gives you a very good picture of how the process was regarding the burials of the soldiers and how their relatives later on acted within the situations

I have a few more soldiers in my database who have those scanned documents and I will try to tell you some other small stories in the future.

Some documents mention that Amanda was born in the landscape of Småland, Sweden, but the church books says Denmark, and that is probably correct.

Amanda died in Cook County, Chicago, Illinois in September 11, 1941.

May Amanda and Oscar rest in peace.

Most of the time my research about the Swedish born soldiers is going quite smooth, reading and using the facts that are stated in the papers. The facts from the different papers and documents that I find in the archives often gives me the correct data which I later can verify in the Swedish archives and church books.

But sometimes I find some names in documents, together with facts that points me in the direction of Sweden, not regions or villages in other countries called “Sweden”, but to the actual country of Sweden, which I can´t confirm in any Swedish documents like church books or other archive files.

This makes me curious. It doesnt mean that they are not there, but so far I haven’t been able to confirm some of them. Maybe some of you out there who reads this can bring some more light to the stories.

Below you will find three of the individuals that I am struggeling with for the moment, with some thoughts or reasons of my own, why I cant find them.

Oscar Osk

In the Canadian Military attestation papers it says that Oscar is born in Scona, Sweden, which probably is the landscape of Skåne in Sweden. I can also read that he served three years in the Swedish Army, which means that he left quite late from Sweden as the Swedish Conscript age at that was 21. His father is named as Ola Osk on the front page, but later in the documents I find that his father is specified as Ola Martenson, which is Ola Mårtensson. There is also an address to where his father lived in Sweden, when this information was added.

When I search for the address in the Swedish church books, I find Ola Mårtensson at the correct address. When I do this, I also find the date of birth of Ola Mårtensson, which can lead me to other periods, which can show if there has been an individual called Oscar connected to Ola Mårtensson, with the specified date of birth, Marsch 7, 1890.

I searched with different combinations, like excluding surname, changing the date of birth, but there is no Oscar connected to Ola Mårtensson in the Swedish church books.

There are surnames in Sweden like Osk, Ask and similar, but not even this have solved the case. I will try to search within more combinations, but so far the mystery about Oscar Osk is unsolved. That doesn’t take away what this individual went through.

Maybe Oskar didn’t want to use his real name, or did he had other reasons not to use his real name? I can imagine that not everone had a totally honest life. Or did the Canadian authorities looked for his next of Kin, and then just found an “Ole” or “Ola” in Sweden? Probably not, as it is a quite common name, and I still think Ola Mårtensson was his father.

Oscar fought for the 28th Canadian Infantry battalion when he was dangerously wounded and later died of his wounds August 24, 1917. He is buried at BARLIN COMMUNAL CEMETERY EXTENSION in France. Whoever you are, Oskar, rest in peace Lest we forget.

Olaf Olson

Olaf is also not yet confirmed in Swedish Church books and here are some fatcs about him from different digital sources.

From the Canadian attestation papers I find that he is noted to be born in Sweden. There is no village or town specified, but the next of Kin is his mother Mary Olsen. There are some canadian addresses connected to Mary like Midman Avenue in Winnipeg, Manitoba, but also East Street, Winnipeg Manitoba.

Olaf is according to the papers born in January 29, 1897, and is quite young when he sign his papers in 1916. He will become 19 same year, in 1916. When

Olaf can be Olof in Swedish and his name is changed from Olsen to Olson with a pencil on the document, and in the CWGC archive he is named Olaf Olson. It is easy to think that he could be born in Norway as it is quite common with nemes and surnames like Olaf and Olsen, but I haven’t looked into any Norweigian archives.

His mother Mary can Also be Maria in Swedish, or some other common name like Marie, Ann-Marie or similar.

As I haven’t found any more information about any Mary, with a son called Olaf, in some Canadian archives, I can’t find any data that can help me to search for any information in the Swedish Church books. Maybe I will find some more information later on.

In the papers there are some information about his period in 90th Winnipeg Rifle Bugle Band, maybe that can be a source of finding more information that can lead me to more facts about Olaf. I find Olaf quite young on the photo below and I assume that if he emigrated from Sweden he probably did that when he was young.

Olaf belonged to 144th Battalion, Winnipeg Rifles but was fighting for 8th Canadian Infantry battalion CEF when he was reported wounded and later on Missing. He was later on declared to have been killed August 15, 1917. Olaf has no known grave and are commemorated with his name at Vimy Memorial in France. May he rest in peace.

William Matheson

When it comes to find more information about William Matheson, who was, according to the Canadain Attestation papers, born in Sweden May 16, 1888, it was a bit more positive than the other two mentioned above.

But still I haven’t found the last piece of the puzzle when it comes to confirm his birth in the Swedish Church books of birth.

William also, as Olaf above, belonged to the 144th Canadian battalion, Winnipeg Rifles, and he also signed his papers in Winnipeg, Manitoba, which he did in December 22, 1915.

I tried to search for him in the Swedish Church books using his date of birth, and also tried other versions of names. William is almost in every case a change from the Swedish/German name of Wilhelm, and that is what I try to search for. I also use the stated place of birth which in this case is Kalix, quite far up north in Sweden.

I find him in the Swedish archive of Arkiv Digital, a very nice database portal that have connection to a large amount of archive files. Here he is noted to be Mattias Vilhelm Mattsson.

On this page he is mentioned alone, and not connected to any family of his. His profession is notes as “arbetare”, worker in english. The place mentioned on the top of the page is Axelsvik, not far away from Kalix. The book also mention the parish in which he is born, and it says Nederkalix. On the same row, to the right, it is mentioned that his parents are from Finland.

This could be the correct facts, but I cant find the confirmation of birth in the other Church books. I have tried with some other combinations when it comes to date of birth, but no result.

When I do a search for him on google I find a nice page from Canada, that commemorates those individuals from Kenora, earlier known as Rat Portage, in Ontario, Canada, who fought in the Great War.

Information from that page mention that his father, Matts Mattsson, was from Finland, which confirms the notes in The Swedish Church books. The page also mention that his mother, Anna Eriksdotter Nygärd, was born in Råneå, close to Kalix, in Sweden. It is also mentioned that his mother had another son from another period, Erik August, born in 1874, which I can confirm in the Swedish Church Books.

But Nygärd seems to be Nygren according to the notes. Her first son is born outside a marriage, not good in these times, and the notes below also tells us that Williams mother later on met his father, Matts Mattson, from Finland.

In this moment I can’t confirm that William Matheson was born in Sweden, even if parts of the Church book says that. I will continue to look for him.

William Matheson fought for the 52nd Canadian Infantry battalion and was killed in action, by GSW in legs and face, August 8, 1918. He is buried at HOURGES ORCHARD CEMETERY, DOMART-SUR-LA-LUCE in France. May he rest in peace.

For the moment I still have 24 unconfirmed Swedish born soldiers in my research, of 443 soldiers in total. I will continue to try to confirm those, as I really want to find all the details about those individuals who paid the ultimate price out there on the Battlefield.

Lest we forget.

Finding a photo of those soldiers I have in my research is always interesting. In this case I got a message from one of my followers which contained some files and photos of some of those soldiers who fought in the French Foreign Legion.

The photo contains individuals from both Denmark, Norway and Sweden, and it was also explained who each individual was, where they came from and in some cases where and when they fell.

It has been very hard to find photos of the Swedes who fought and fell for the French Foreign Legion, but through this message I can now add faces to some more of the Swedes that I have in my database.

The Swedes who fell for the French Foreign Legion are commemorated outside the Swedish Church in Paris.

Below you will find the names of those 16 Swedes who fell. It is estimated that around 40-50 Swedes in total served for the French Foreign Legion in the Great War.

Below you will find some basic documents connected to each individual. Some snippets are from Swedish newspapers, others from the Swedish church books.

Emile Herman Benzien (Emile Herman Benzeen)

Pascal Bergman (Paul Pascal Bergman)

Charles Brener (Herman Perres Bremer?)

Olof Edmann (Olof Edman)

Erik Adolf Erikson (Erik Adolf Eriksson)

Edmond Petrus Hilmez Eriksson (Edmund Petrus Hilmer Eriksson)

Erich Agne Göthlin (Agne Walter Erik Johansson)

Yvan Lonnberg (Ivan Lönnberg)

Eloi Gaston Nilson (Elof Nilsson)

Karl Olsson

Rudolf Petersen

Auguste Sporre Wend Pettersson (Sven August Petersson)

Nils Pihl (Document from Memoire Des Hommes is missing)

Bur Courad Sjoberg (Bror Konrad Sjöberg)

Ivar Svenson (Ivar Svensson)

Gustaf Albert Wiren (Gustaf Albert Wirén)

Source of casualty card documents: https://www.memoiredeshommes.sga.defense.gouv.fr/

Above presented snippets are just a few documents of the data I have, and I will add more data to each individual when I find it.

If someone who reads this have more information of Nils Pihl, I would be very greatful. There is no casualty card to find at this moment, and due to lack of skills in the french language, I have also hard to search in other french sources.

More to find

On the memorial there is a name, B Thorin. According to some data I have found he was born in Sweden. Below some text from the book “War Letters of Kiffin Yates Rockwell”.

Thorin, Daniel William. “Billy” Thorin was born in Sweden, but went to America when very young, and became a United States citizen. He recovered from his wounds received in Champagne, September 28, 1915, and rejoined the Legion at the front, but after a few months contracted tuberculosis. After a long stay in hospital, he was invalided out of the army, and returned to America. Mr. John Jay Chapman sent him to a sanatorium in Arizona, where he died, September 25, 1918.

In the documents below it says he was born in September 11, 1886, but it is actually 1883, according to Swedish Church Books. He has no known father, but probably takes his surname from his mother’s husband.

“Billy’s” last request was that he be given a military funeral and this wish was complied with, the Governor of Arizona sending a regiment of troops to escort the Legionnaire’s remains to their final resting place.

In the top group photo above there is also a man called Nyberg, who, according to the information in the documents, also fell in the war. I will try to find more information about him.

May they rest in peace.

The diary says “Killed in Action”. John ended his days in the French soil during the battle between Regina Trench and Desire Trench in November 1916. Who was John?

John Larsson was born in Mönsterås parish i Kalmar county in Sweden as Johan Gustaf Larsson on July 2nd, 1878. In this case it is a bit unusual that he actually keeps his Swedish spelling of the surname with two “s” as it is more common in the most cases when it comes to spelling of Swedish names in the documents, connected to their time in the the armies in their new countries, that they change it to just one “s” in the Scandinavian “son-surnnames”

He was raised by his mother Hedda Christina Johansdotter, but without a known father, and is noted as “oäkta” in the Swedish churchbooks, which means directly translated “illegitimate”, which was not seen with good eyes in those times, but was fairly common. They lived on the farm Blackemåla, south of the village of Ålem in Kalmar county.

When reading the documents from the Swedish Church books I see that he grew up together with his mother during the years before he emigrated, but sometimes also together with his mother’s new husbands and also with his mother’s parents. In one case one of Heddas new husbands, Gustaf Edvin Johansson is declared “insane” and is put on a mental hospital, and Hedda is declared pauper. It must have been a hard time for the family.

John is early noted as a sailor and it is beleived that he belonged to Oskarshamn’s shipping house from around 1894 until he emigrated to North America in 1898, at an age of 19, and he did not start nor fulfilled his military conscript in Sweden.

According to the 1916 Canada census of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta, John created his little family together with his Swedish wife Constance that he probably met when he had emigrated to North America. They had two sons and two daughters, who were Ethel 10, Arvid 8, Clarence 7 and Jeanette 5, all born in Alberta.

The Larsson family lived in Lethbridge, Alberta, and in my research I find other Swedish born soldiers who lived there before they went out to war. I don’t have any information right now if they knew about eachother, but probably they had som kind of knowledge about other Swedish citizens in Lethbridge. Those I have in my research are from different parts of Sweden.

John’s unit, the 39th Field Artillery Battery, which belonged to the 10th brigade, 3rd Divisional Artillery, left Saint John, Canada, in February 1916. John enlisted in Lethbridge and went overseas from Saint John in February 26, 1916 and arrived to Plymouth, England March 13, 1916. He landed in Le Havre in July 14, 1916.

According to the unit diary the unit supported the attacks towards Desire Trench from Regina Trench in the area north-west of the village of Courcelette during the battle of Ancre Heights. John is noted to be killed November 16, 1916, most likely in his support position, a bit behind the area mentioned above.

During my trip to the Somme area of the battlefield in France in July 2022 I visited the area where John was killed in action and where he is buried. Johan is buried at the Sunken Road Cemetery, which is located south of the village of Pozieres, south-west of Courcelette. It always feels good to find the headstones of the Swedes when I visit the cemeteries, and I always plant a little Swedish flag (made of paper and wood) to commemorate their Swedish origin.

May John rest in peace.

This was the first short story from my visit to the battlefields in July 2022. More stories will be told, about other Swedes who I visited during this trip, who fought and fell at the Western Front in the Great War.

In my research I follow up Swedes in the Great War, especially those who fell and are buried at the Western Front. In my database I have Swedish born soldiers who fought for different nations, such as Canada, UK, Australia, New Zealand, France, Germany and North America.

I read a lot of material and I especially like to find text in diaries from Swedes who participated in the battles. A quick analyze shows that it was often the Swedish officers notes who became books which they often wrote when they came home, after having survived the War.

In some notes I can read information about where and when they fought in a specific region, and it is very interesting but at the same time a great challenge to figure out if it could have been like that, that they fought against eachother, from a short or long distance, or met eachother. I know it will be very hard to find out, but it is highly likely that they of course where in the same area, where some of them paid the ultimate price, their lifes.

I will write more about this subject in an upcoming article, but will give you an example in this blog post.

Carl Belfrage (Karl Mauritz) was born in Mölndal (Fässberg) parish April 28, 1887. He was raised by his mother Jenny Elfrida Gustafva Lagerlöf and his father Knut Arcadius Belfrage, together with his twin brother George Knut and their older brother Nils Gustaf.

Carl took his officer exam in December 19, 1908. At new years day in 1908 he became an “Underlötjnant” (sub lieutenant) and at new years day in 1914 he bacame a lieutenant.

When Swedish officers applied for going to War for another country, they were in all cases denied to do that, so they had to resign as officers. Carl did that June 3, 1915, and became a lieutenant in 162nd Prussian infantry regiment.

He participated in the War at the Western Front in following battles:

• Roye-Noyon July 7, 1915 to September 28, 1915
• Autumn battle between La Bassé and Arras in 1915.
• Giessler hight east of Souchez in February 21, 1916.
• Fightings at Givenchy en Gohelle May 21, 1916 to June 2, 1916.
• Battle of the Somme July 20, 1916 to August 21, 1916 and September 25, 1916 to October 7, 1916.
• Fightings at the Yser, October 18, 1916 to February 5, 1917.
• Siegfried front at Ribe-court in Artois April 24, 1917 to May 15, 1917
• Artois in June 5, 1917 to August 9, 1917 and September 17, 1917 to September 29, 1917
• Arras and Albert April 1, 1918 to April 20, 1918
• Hebuterne July 15, 1918 to July 28, 1918
• Monchy and Bapaume August 21, 1918 to September 2, 1918.
• West of Cambrai September 3, 1918 to September 6, 1918
• Armentieres and Lens September 7, 1918 to October 11, 1918
• Antwerpen-Maas stellung October 12, 1918 to November 4, 1918.
• Went back through the German area to Germany between November 12, 1918 to December 16, 1918.

Carl became a Captain October 5, 1916. He received the Iron Cross, 1st and 2nd Class, and he left the German Army in March 31, 1920.

In the book about “Swedes in War”, (Svenskar i Krig) by the Swedish Historians Lars Gyllenhaal and Lennart Westberg, there is a short story from one of Carl’s colleague, the Norwegian officer Lyder Ramstad, when they were out on a patrol in no mans land around Ypres:

“We, as the englishmen, often did patrols. One night we heard only some meters away and small talk from the other side. My comrade grabbed me in the arm and said; – It sounds like when you and Belfrage speaks to eachother! It was like that, the talk was made in perfect Swedish. (Norweigian and Swedes understand eachothers language) We crawled around them and shouted – Hands Up! The three men immidiately gave up. The were very surprised when I talked to them in Norwegian. When we came back to our lines , and Belfrage talked to them in Swedish, they looked very surprised. They were three sailors who fought for the Brits (It doesn’t tell for which commonwealth country). Belfrage decided to help them back to Sweden”

Belfrage wrote his own diaries and they have been made into a book by one of his relatives, Bengt Belfrage, and is called “War memories – The hell on the Western Front” (Vanvettet på Västfronten).

As mentioned above, I will try to compile more analyzes and stories from other sources into a larger article, which I probably will send to the Great War Group.

It is a great feeling to see my own material finally printed and published in a magazine about the Great War. I will really try to write more articles, I have so much to tell about the Swedish born soldiers who fought and fell in the Great War, especially at the Western front.

Below you will find some photos from the article which is from the Great War magazine “Salient Points”, connected to the association “The Great War Group“. As a member you will get this magazine sent to you quarterly. The material is of high quality and there are different main topics from time to time.

Since the article was sent in I have found some more Swedes and they will be covered in another article.

Please check in my page now and then!

I have come to that stage in my research, when I go more deep into each individual I have in my database. I have now decided to look more into those few Swedish born British soldiers that served in the Great War and fell at the Western Front.

One of those was 2nd/Lt George Herbert Westerberg.

George was born in Gothenburg, in Gustavi parish, June 1st, 1879. He was raised by his Swedish born mother Jemina Marshall, born Andersson, and his father Johan August Westerberg in the town of Gothenburg. George had seven siblings, five brothers and two sisters. His mother Jemina was born in the English parish department in Gothenburg, “Engelska församlingen”.

Some digitized newspapers mention that George went to England and became a businessman around 1899 at an age of 20. George is noted as absent in the Swedish churchbooks in 1901, and he probably left Sweden for England at around 1898-1899. There are no facts available for the moment that confirm the exact date when he left Sweden.

He lived near London with his wife Jane Westerberg, born Clark, and their two children. George became a natural british subject June 13, 1910, after have sworn the oath in front of Winston Churchill. George and Jane got married in the same period in 1910.

You can read more about George Herbert Westerberg through this eminent page:

http://www.hertsatwar.co.uk/biographies/232821/george-herbert-westerberg

The article says as follows:

“Citizen of Gothenburg fallen in France.

According to information to Gothenburg, has George Herbert Westerberg, the 4th in this month, (actually the 5th according to the diary) fallen in the fightings in France. He was born in Gothenburg and son to the architect and the member of parliament J. A. Westerberg, and was at his death 37 years old. He was a businessman in England and lived near London. He participated as a volunteer in the war on the British side and had officer rank. He is mourned by his wife and his two children, and by siblings in Sweden.”

The picture below show their address, Porch Cottage, 15 Nightingale Rd, Bushey, Herts, in 1911.

George received his commission in the Royal Field Artillery, 106th Brigade in August 1915 and went to the front in March 1916.

In the beginning of September 1916 the unit fought in the battle of the Somme around the area of Maricourt in France, and in the diary from the period it is mentioned that the headquarter is stationed near the place called Briqueterie, north of the town of Maricourt. George is mentioned by name in the unit diary on September 5th, 1916. He died when a shell exploded close to him, when he was on his way back from an observation post.

George is buried at Dantzig Alley British cemetery. I will take a photo of his headstone when I visit him in July this year. On the picture below you can see the area where he was when he fell and where he is buried.

May George rest in peace.