Kenora Great War Project

 

Personal Details
Date of BirthFebruary 14, 1887
Place of BirthByske, Västerbotten
CountrySweden
Marital StatusSingle
Next of KinMrs Alb Hedlund, sister, 1403 Glenwood Avenue, Evanston, Illinois, USA
Trade / CallingPlasterer
ReligionLutheran
Service Details
Regimental Number294878
Service Record Link to Service Record
Battalion2nd Canadian Mounted Rifles
ForceCanadian Expeditionary Force
BranchCanadian Cavalry
Enlisted / ConscriptedEnlisted
Address at EnlistmentCambie Rooms, Vancouver, British Columbia
Date of EnlistmentFebruary 14, 1917
Age at Enlistment30
Theatre of ServiceEurope
Prisoner of WarNo
Survived WarYes
Death Details
Date of DeathDecember 3, 1941
Age at Death54
Buried AtMountain View Cemetery, Thunder Bay, Ontario

Lundmark, Victor Daniel

As per his Swedish birth record, Viktor Daniel Lundmark was born on 13 February 1887 in Aspliden in the parish of Byske in Västerbotten in northern Sweden. However on all other parish records as well as records after immigration, his birth date is always given as the 14th. His parents Anders Lundmark and Erika Carolina Lundqvist were both from Byske and had married on 14 March 1875. Victor had four older sisters, Emma Serafina (1875), Anna Maria (Hanna) (1877), Elin Augusta (1882), and Linda Erika (1884). Sadly Victor’s mother died in April of 1888 and his father later married Brita Gustava Wikström in July of 1889. Anders and Brita gave birth to son Johan Artur (Arthur) in July of 1890.

Hanna was the first to immigrate to North America, arriving in New York in October of 1904 and settling in Evanston, Illinois where she married John Albert Hedlund. Elin followed in June of 1906, also going to Evanston where she married John Olund, with Arthur arriving in Evanston in April of 1910. According to the church records, Victor left the parish on 6 August 1910 although a passenger list or emigration record for him was not found. Later censuses and other records give his year of immigration as 1910.

Victor signed his attestation papers with the 223rd (Scandinavians) Battalion in Vancouver on 14 February 1917. At the time he was staying at the Cambie Rooms, likely a temporary residence. He gave his occupation as plasterer, his sister Mrs Alb (Hanna) Hedlund in Evanston, Illinois as next of kin and previous military service as just over five years with the Swedish Army (20th Regiment Infantry) and five years with the American Army (11th Infantry). As a Private, Victor embarked from Halifax aboard the Justicia on the 3rd of May.

Upon arrival in England Victor was transferred to the 11th Reserve Battalion and then on to the 16th Reserve Battalion. For three weeks in August he attended a PT&BT course at Shorncliffe and that November was transferred to the 2nd Canadian Mounted Rifles, joining the unit on the 17th. On 15 December Victor was admitted to the No 58 Casualty Clearing Station, transferred to the No 14 Stationary Hospital in Wimereux, diagnosis severe diphtheria. In early February of 1918 Victor was invalided to England, first admitted to the King George Hospital on Stamford Street in London on the 5th, and then transferred to the Manor (County of London) War Hospital in Epsom on the 9th. He was transferred to the Military Convalescent Hospital Woodcote Park in early April, with discharge on 10th of May.

In early July Victor was appointed Acting Lance Corporal with pay and was granted permission to marry in early September. Registered during the 3rd quarter of 1918 in the district of Woodbridge in Suffolk, Victor married Vera Mary Crane. Born in 1897 in Charsfield in Suffolk, Vera was the daughter of Robert Thomas and Happy Susan (née Mann) Crane. Later in September Victor reverted to the grade of Private, transferring to the 3rd Reserve Battalion and then struck off strength to the 2nd Canadian Mounted Rifles on the 2nd of October. On 17 January 1919 Victor was admitted to the No 51 Casualty Clearing Station suffering from albuminuria, too much protein in his urine, indicating kidney damage. Invalided to England, Victor was admitted to the Clandon Park War Hospital at Guildford on the 25th, also diagnosed as anemic and suffering from valvular disease of the heart. In late February he was transferred to the Roy Herbert Hospital in Woolwich and then on to the Military Convalescent Hospital Woodcote Park for a week in mid March. From there Victor was transferred to the Kings Canadian Red Cross Special Hospital, Bushey Park on 17 March, discharged on the 21st of May. Victor and Vera embarked for Canada aboard the Cassandra on August 9th, arriving in Quebec on the 19th. Victor was discharged from service on the 23rd in Quebec, intended residence given as Kenora, Ontario.

The 1921 census found Victor and Vera living in the west ward of Kenora, with Victor’s occupation given as labourer. On 15 July 1921, in Kenora, the couple gave birth to son George Victor. By the next year they had relocated to Evanston, Illinois. Sadly, Victor’s sister Elin had died in Evanston in 1917 and his sister Hanna later died in 1925, also in Evanston. By the 1930 US census, Victor’s marriage had failed, the census finding Victor, working as a cement finisher, and his brother Arthur lodging with the Olson family in Evanston. By the time of the census Vera had married Chris Thaagaard. Victor and Vera’s son George was raised by Vera and her new husband in Illinois, later moving to Colorado.

Living on 5th Street in Brandon, Manitoba and working as a cement finisher, Victor signed his WW2 attestation paper on 11 June 1941 in Fort William, Ontario. As next of kin he gave his son George, serving with the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry, address of Woodbridge, Suffolk, England. The previous September Victor had been attached to the 101st Militia Training Centre, promoted to Acting Sergeant with pay on the 4th. By April of 1941 Victor, having joined the 102nd Veterans’ Reserve Home Guard and attached to the Royal Winnipeg Rifles, was in Fort William, Ontario as a Sergeant on the staff of the 102nd Canadian Army (Reserve) Training Centre.

Found in the training centre, Victor died on 3 December 1941 of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. He is interred in the Mountain View Cemetery in Thunder Bay. Victor’s son George joined the Navy in 1940 and served until 1946, mostly in the Aleutian Islands, according to his obituary. During his military service he met his wife Evalyn at the Alameda Naval Air Station in California where she was a aircraft inspector. The couple married on 1 September 1945, later giving birth to three daughters, Linda, Sandra, and Victoria. George died on 5 January 2012 in Wheat Ridge, Colorado and is interred in the Highland Cemetery in Highland, Colorado. Also interred in the cemetery are Victor’s stepfather Chris (1988) and his mother Vera (1993).

Victor is commemorated for his WW2 service in the WW2 Book of Remembrance in Ottawa, page 36, and on the Canadian Virtual War Memorial website.

By Judy Stockham


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