Gunnar George Lejon - the body could not be taken care of.

A while ago I was updating dates on quite distant relatives. I was working on the couple Otto Vilhem Lejon and his wife Astrid Jeanette Gustavsson. The first thing that hit me was that Astrid died so young, only 28 years old on 3rd of July in 1925. Death cause - TBC.

Thier son Gunnar, born in Munka Ljungby, April 25 in 1920 was at the time five years old. I noticed that Otto remarried about a year later, July 25 1926 with 24 year old Lilly Sabina from Hjärnarp. Eventhough Lilly was that young she had lost her husband and was a widow. Otto died in 1958 and Lilly in 1974, December 30 on her 72nd birthday.

Gunnar, the son of Otto and Astrid died young as well, 22 years old on May 10 in 1942. I found it a bit noticable that his adress when he dies was in Örebro, in the Swedish army. I thought it might have been some sort of accident and did some searches on the net. It did not take long before I got some results.

I found him on a memorialsite of volonteers that died fighting for Finland in the Continuation War. He died at Jandeba at the Svir Front in former Sovietunion. It says that his body could not be taken care of. At Sandudd in Helsinki, Finland (Hietaniemen hautausmaa) there is a memorial with his name on it together with some other Swedish volonteers who died and whos bodies was left behind. A picture of the memorial can be found here: Krigsminnen.se - Fallna rikssvenska frivilligas minnesmärke . Another memorial with his name is at the chapel in Arnäsholm close to Borås. There is also a book, Svenskarna vid Jandeba (The Swedes at Jandeba), about the subject and where there is a picture of him.

From just updating basic facts on some distant relatives and some simple searches on the net I sort of stumbled upon all this information, taking me to a huge cemetary in Finland I never heard of before, learning more about the Continuation War between Finland and Soviet and making me visit the library quite fast to see his picture. Genealogy amazes me!

I also found a notice from Svenska Dagbladet from May 16, 1942 where they write about the death of Gunnar.

Svenska Dagbladet 16 May, 1942. From the archive of Genealogiska Föreningen