Swedes on The Western Front

Earlier, in 2021, I wrote a blog post about those Swedish born soldiers, who fell in the Great War, were brought home and reburied in Sweden. You can read that blog post here:

Home to Sweden

At that time I had only found nine of those 17 in total that I know about now. For a period of time I have been thinking that it can be more than those 17, but the other day I found an old article in an issue from the Magazine “American Legion” which on page 22 mention those soldiers from other countries than the USA, who were brought home to their countries of birth.

In this magazine it is mentioned that it was 17 soldiers who initially were buried in France or Belgium, who later were disinterred and transported to Sweden. Of those 17 soldiers 15 were born in Sweden, although two of them were born by Swedish parents in the USA. Those two were Albert M Benson (Albert Markus Eugen Bengtsson), born in Brooklyn, and Herman I Hermanson (Herman Irving Hermansson), born in New York.

As I now have 17 of them in my research, who I found by manually searching through the casualty cards of each soldier, I am now quite sure that it is only those 17 that were brought back to Sweden.

The reason for why the soldiers were brought to Sweden was probably that the descendants were asked in the 1920s if their sons or husbands should be brought back to US, remained buried in France or Belgium, or brought back to the country of birth.

Some of the relatives to these soldiers answered that they wanted them to be sent home to Sweden, and they got their wish granted. The reason for that was probably that the majority of the relatives lived in Sweden, and they wanted to be able to visit their fallen.

Below you will now find all of the cards from those 17 soldiers that were reburied in Sweden.

I have only managed to find and visit one soldier of those 17, Ernest Johnson (Ernst Hildemar Valentin Jonsson) from Örsjö, Kronoberg County, Småland, Sweden.

I hope I will be able to find more burials of those 17 to visit here in Sweden.

Through my constant search for interesting Swedish connections to the Great War, I came across an interesting note about a Swedish born soldier who joined the Canadian Army just a few days after the war broke out. He was discharged in January 25, 1919, and was lucky to have survived. The soldier was John Sigfried Zetterman.

John Sigfried Zetterman was born as Johan Sigfrid Sätterman in Ransäter parish, Munkfors, Värmland, Sweden, on November 13, 1878. He was raised by his parents Ingeborg Persdotter and Eric Olsson.

His surname Sätterman is noted in the Swedish church books, and it may come from his older brother Carl E Zetterman (Karl Engelbrekt Sätterman) who called himself “Sätterman” in the church books before he left for North America in 1895. Two more siblings left for North America already in 1882 and 1891.

Johan left Sweden in November 1901, and arrived in New York in January, 1902. John lived with his brother Carl in Kokomo, Howard County, Indiana, for several years, but when the war broke out he enlisted for the Canadian Army on August 10, 1914, just a few days after Great Britain declared war. He signed his Attestation Papers for CEF on August 22, 1914.

He arrived in France February 12, 1915, and already on April 25, 1915, he received his first wound, GSW in hand and arm, during the fightings in the area of Langemark, Belgium. He was sent to rest in the 12th Stationary Hospital in Rouen, France.

He was wounded a second time during the fightings in the area of Courcelette in France, in September 1916. In June 1918 he was gassed so severely that he was sent to a rest camp in England. He stayed there until the armistice, and later on returned to Canada to receive his final discharge on January 25, 1919.

John had been a soldier of the fourth Overseas battalion in CEF. He was given a land grant by the Canadian government.

He had the honor to serve longer in the World War than any other Howard County soldier.

John died of Tuberculosis in St Joseph’s Hospital, Parry Sound, Ontario, Canada on May 30, 1928.

It is not known to me, on this moment, where he is buried today. So far he may be the Swedish born soldier that I have read about so far, that have served the longest in the Great War. May he rest in peace.