Kenora Great War Project

 

Personal Details
Date of BirthJune 6, 1897
Place of BirthHotagen, Jämtland
CountrySweden
Marital StatusSingle
Next of KinClara Soderberg, sister, Kenora, Ontario
Trade / CallingYard office night clerk
ReligionBaptist
Service Details
Regimental Number231340
Service Record
Battalion10th Battalion
ForceCanadian Expeditionary Force
BranchCanadian Infantry
Enlisted / ConscriptedEnlisted
Place of EnlistmentEdmonton, Alberta
Address at Enlistment10811 Victoria Avenue, Edmonton, Alberta
Date of EnlistmentMarch 3, 1916
Age at Enlistment18
Theatre of ServiceEurope
Prisoner of WarNo
Survived WarYes
Death Details
Date of DeathJune 9, 1952
Age at Death55
Buried AtEdmonton Municipal Cemetery, Edmonton, Alberta
PlotM-83-12

Soderberg, Paul Leonard

Paulus Leander Söderberg was born on 6 June 1897 in Hotogen, Jämtland in Sweden. His father Anders Petter (PГҐlsson) Söderberg was born in 1857 in Kölsjön, Hassela in Gävleborg while his mother Ingeborg Danielsdotter was born in 1873 in Hotagen. The couple married on 27 July 1891 in Hotagen. Children born in Hotagen were Nester Emmanuel (1891), Klara Kjerstina (1893), Paulus, and Kiruna (1899). By the time of the birth of son Attler Manfred in 1902 the family had moved to Kiruna, Jukkasjärvi in Norbotten. Other children born in Kiruna were twins Anders Mauritz and Dagney Ingeborg (1904) and Ingvald Levi (1906). Sadly the twins both died in 1904, Anders in July and Dagney in October. Over the years Anders worked as a torpare (crofter), arbetare (labourer), and gruvarbetare (miner).

Anders, Klara, and Paulus immigrated to Canada in 1907, leaving Kiruna on 27 February and embarking from Göteberg on 6 March aboard the Rollo. They arrived in St John, New Brunswick on the Lake Manitoba on 27 March, the passenger list indicated that they were on their way to Winnipeg. Once in Canada the names were anglicized to Andrew, Clara, and Paul Leonard. By the time of the 1911 census the three had split up with Andrew working in a mining camp in the Ymir riding in Kootenay in British Columbia and Clara working as a domestic with the Elliot family in Winnipeg. Paul ended up with the John (Johan) and Martha (Märta) Sundblad family of Kenora. John had immigrated to Canada from Sweden in May of 1892, followed by Martha and children Olaf (Oliver), Axel, and Bro Henning (Harry) that October. First living in Winnipeg, by the time of the 1901 census they were in Rat Portage, later renamed Kenora. For the 1911 census the Sundblads were living in Fort William where they ran a hotel, with Paul listed as an adopted son on the census. The family did not stay long in Fort William, returning to the Kenora area a short time later.

Paul was living in Edmonton, Alberta when he enlisted with the 202nd Battalion on 3 March 1916. His occupation was given as night clerk in a yard office and his sister Clara in Kenora as next of kin. A portion of his pay was assigned to his guardian Martha Sundblad in Kenora. After training at Sarcee Camp in Calgary, the battalion arrived in Liverpool in England aboard the Mauretania on 30 November 1916. Transferring to the 10th Battalion for service overseas, Paul arrived at the 1st Entrenching Battalion on 15 June 1917 and then on to the 10th Battalion on 18 August. While Paul was in service with the 10th Battalion, battle honours for the battalion were Passchendaele, Amiens, Scarpe 1918, Drocourt-Quéant, Hindenburg Line, Canal du Nord, Pursuit to Mons, and France and Flanders 1915-1918. Paul was granted two fourteen day leaves to the UK, the first in late January of 1918 and the second in late January of 1919. With the end of the war he returned to England in mid March of 1919 and embarked for Canada on the Carmania on April 10th. Paul was discharged from service on 23 April 1919 in Calgary, intended residence given as Edmonton.

Paul’s brother Harry through adoption was called up for service in late April of 1918, discharged from service following a harvest leave in January of 1919 in Port Arthur, Ontario.

At the time of the 1921 census Paul was rooming with the William and Margaret McNaught family in Edmonton, working as a clerk for a railway. In 1922, in Edmonton, Paul married Lulu Isabel Hughes. Born on 1 June 1899 in the county of Wellington in Ontario, Lulu was the daughter of John Hughes and Catherine Ledingham. At the time of the 1901 census she was living in London, Ontario with her parents where sadly her father died in 1903. Her mother died in 1916 and by the time of the 1921 census Lulu was living in Edmonton where she was working as a bank clerk. It appears that Paul and Lulu gave birth to two children, a stillborn infant in 1928 and son Ronald Hughes on 7 May 1932. Voters lists for Edmonton indicated that Paul worked for the Canadian National Railway.

Paul died on 9 June 1952 in Edmonton. At the time of his death he was survived by his wife Lulu and son Ronald as well as siblings Nestor in Toronto and Attler back in Sweden. He was predeceased by his mother Ingeborg (1917, Kiruna, Sweden), father Andrew (1922, Prince Rupert, British Columbia) and siblings Anders and Dagney in infancy, Kiruna (John) Forsberg (1926) and Ingvald (1934), all in Sweden. Lulu died on 19 April 1979 in Edmonton while their son Ronald died later that year, on 21 November in Humboldt in California. At the time of his death Ronald was survived by his wife Margaret (née Ives) and three children. Paul and Lulu are interred in the Edmonton Municipal Cemetery in Edmonton.

By Judy Stockham

Soderberg-Paul-Leonard-2

Grave marker photo and obituary courtesy of Alison Glass

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