Kenora Great War Project

 

Personal Details
Date of BirthSeptember 25, 1893
Place of BirthNorman, Ontario
CountryCanada
Marital StatusSingle
Next of KinAugust Skoglund, father, Norman, Ontario
Trade / CallingClerk
ReligionLutheran
Service Details
Regimental Number524423
Service Record
BattalionNo 13 Canadian Field Ambulance
ForceCanadian Expeditionary Force
BranchCanadian Army Medical Corps
Enlisted / ConscriptedEnlisted
Address at EnlistmentNorman PO, Ontario
Date of EnlistmentApril 9, 1917
Age at Enlistment23
Theatre of ServiceEurope
Prisoner of WarNo
Survived WarYes
Death Details
Date of DeathApril 12, 1974
Age at Death80
Buried AtSunnyside Lawn Cemetery, Surrey, BC
PlotVeterans Block 008-D-2

Scoglund, Oscar Emanuel

Oscar Emanuel Skoglund was born on 25 September 1893 in Norman, Ontario, a small community just west of Kenora. It appears that his father August Skoglund was born in Sätterstad, Sunne, Värmland in Sweden, likely immigrating to Canada in 1887. His mother Betty Nilsdotter was from Г–stra Г„mtervik, Sunne, Värmland, immigrating to Canada in 1888. August and Betty married on 2 December 1892 in Winnipeg, moving to Norman a short time later where August found work with the Keewatin Lumber Company. Two more children were born to the couple, Ellen (1897) and Alma (1900). The family later moved to nearby Keewatin, Ontario where August worked in the local flour mill before relocating to the Laclu/Pellatt area to farm.

Oscar enlisted with the No 1 Field Ambulance Depot on 9 April 1917 in Winnipeg. His occupation was given as clerk and his father August back in Norman as next of kin. He arrived in England aboard the Metagama on 14 May 1917 and by mid June was posted to the No 13 Canadian Field Ambulance overseas. Field ambulances operated advanced and main dressing stations, which were located just behind the front lines. They provided short term medical care, collecting casualties, treating them and evacuating them to the clearing stations and hospitals as needed. They also operated rest stations and provided stretcher bearers for moving the wounded.  That October he was briefly admitted to the No 11 Canadian Field Ambulance with a shrapnel wound to his leg. In mid January of 1918 Oscar was granted a fourteen day leave to the UK. In October and November he spent time in a number of hospitals/convalescent depots with tonsillitis and then was posted to No 3 Canadian Stationary Hospital at Arques in mid December. Oscar was granted a second fourteen day leave to the UK in late January of 1919, returning to the hospital on 10 February. The hospital ceased operations on 28 February 1919, with Oscar returning to England in early March. He embarked for Canada aboard the Belgic on 16 April and was discharged from service on 25 April in Winnipeg.

After the war Oscar returned to Norman and by the time of the 1921 census was living with his parents in Pellatt and helping out with the farm. In later years the spelling of his surname was changed to Scoglund. A 1945 Voters list gave Oscar’s occupation and residence as farmer in Laclu. Never marrying, he moved to New Westminster, British Columbia in 1955. According to his BC death record, Oscar worked as a janitor for the Canadian Pacific Railway before retiring.

Oscar died on 12 April 1974 in Shaughnessy Hospital in Vancouver. He was predeceased by his parents, both in 1945 in Kenora, and his sister Ellen (Ole) Sand in 1971 in Sioux Lookout, Ontario. His sister Alma (Ernest) Strelesky died in 1975 in Kenora. Oscar is interred in a military plot in Sunnyside Lawn Cemetery in Surrey, BC.

By Judy Stockham

Grave marker photo: SusanR on findagrave.com

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