Bath: Locksbrook Cemetery (Somerset)
Image by michaelday_bath
CWGC gravestone
SWEETLAND, ALBERT GRAHAM
Rank: Private
Service No: 4549
Date of Death: 07/11/1918
Age: 23
Regiment/Service: Australian Infantry, A.I.F., 18th Bn.
Awards: M M
Grave Reference: C. H. 35.
Cemetery: BATH (LOCKSBROOK) CEMETERY
Additional Information: Son of Albert William and Edith Alice Sweetland, of 20, Blenheim Crescent, Notting Hill, London, England. Born at North Kensington, London.
Link: www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/394009/SWEETLAND,%20A…
Albert Sweetman’s burial was covered by the Bath Chronicle, 16 November 1918, p. 7:
DOUBLE MILITARY FUNERAL.
The Rev. J. Turner-Smith has again conducted a double military funeral at Locksbrook Cemetery. On Tuesday afternoon, Pte. John Albert Lien (27), 11th U.S.A. Infantry, and Signaller Albert Sweetland (23), 18th Battalion, A.I.F., both of whom died at the Bath War Hospital, were laid to rest in the portion of the cemetery which has been set aside to receive the mortal remains of gallant soldiers who came to fight from overseas. The splendid Australian band from the No. 1 Australian Depot, Sutton Veny, bearers and firing party, were again in attendance to accord military honours. The coffin of the Australian soldier was covered with the Union Jack and that of the American with the "Stars and Stripes." Relatives of the Australian soldier were able to attend the funeral. The mourners were Mr. and Mrs. A. W. Sweetland (father and mother), Miss W. Sweetland (sister), Mr B. Rudd, Miss M. Rudd and Miss N. Reed [his fiancée]. The funeral arrangements were carried out by Mr. H. C. G. Lye. The officer in charge of the firing party was Lieut. Burt.
Private Sweetland’s service papers have been digitised by the National Archives of Australia. They reveal that he joined the A.I.F. (11th Reinforcements of the 18th Bn.) at Liverpool, N.S.W. on the 6th January 1916, aged 21. At the time he was working as a station hand and was living at Shirley Road, Roseville, NSW (now a suburb of Sydney). He had been born in London (Kensington) and his next-of-kin was his mother, Edith Sweetland, of 20 Blenheim Crescent, Kensington. He was a Methodist. He embarked HMAT "Nestor" at Sydney on the 9th April 1916, spending time variously in Britain and at the front. He trained as a signaller in early 1916 and was taken on the strength of the 18th Battalion., Australian Infantry in December 1916. He was wounded several times and gassed, spending time in hospital in Reading in 1917 (shrapnel ball in left femur). He was wounded again (gun shot wound to the back) in or around the 9th October 1918, returning to England and being admitted to Bath War Hospital on the 18th or 19th October 1918. By the 25th October, Private Sweetland contacted pneumonia, which was followed shortly afterwards by acute appendicitis. He died on the 7th November 1918 of cardiac failure.
Private Sweetland was awarded the Military Medal on 26 October 1918; London Gazette, 2nd supp., No. 31338, 14 May 1919, p. 6061: www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/31338/supplement/6061
His A.I.F. Burial Report (13 November 1918) confirms much of the newspaper report.:
The deceased was accorded a full Military funeral firing party, Bugler, and pallbearers being in attendance. The coffin was draped with the Union Jack and surmounted by several wreaths sent from Mother & Father, Sisters in Ward No. 5. Bath War Hospital, Mrs. J. Church, Aunt Eva, Mrs. Jones, Cousin Maud. The Rev. J. Turner Smith conducted the burial service at the graveside, where the "Last Post" was sounded. The grave will be turfed by the A.I.F. London, and an oak cross erected. Administrative Headquarters, A.I.F. London were represented at the funeral.
It appears that the body of Private Lien was repatriated after the war. John Albert Lien was born in Minnesota, U.S.A. on the 5th August 1891, the son of Peter J. Lien (1867-1937) and Anna Ramberg Lien (1865-1930). He died at Bath on the 8th November 1918. His gravestone is now in East Wild Rice Lutheran Cemetery, Twin Valley, Norman County, Minnesota, U.S.A. His gravestone states that he was a member of Co. A. 118 Inf., and died overseas (information and photograph from: www.findagrave.com).
There is a photograph and short account of Private Lien’s military career in Norman County, Minnesota in the World War (Ada, Minn.: Pfund and Wentzel, 1922), p. 10:
JOHN A. LIEN
Son of Peter Lien of Twin Valley, Minn. Aug. 5th 1891 marks the date of his birth. Pvt. Lien entered the service Feb. 23rd, 1918, at Camp Dodge, Iowa. He was trained at this camp for six weeks, when he was sent to Camp Mills and overseas, arriving at England in June, 1918. After a short period of illness he was sent to the front where he was wounded while in action on Sept. 26th, 1918, and died in the War Hospital at Bath, England, on Nov. 8th, 1918, from pneumonia. At the time of his death he was a member of the 118th Inf.
Full text available from the Internet Archive: archive.org/details/normancountyminn00went
Perhaps coincidentally, September 26th, 1918 was the opening day of the Meuse-Argonne Offensive. At the time, 30th (National Guard) Division (of which the 118th Infantry Regiment was a part) was based further north, joining the Australian Corps on the 29th September for the Battle of the St. Quentin Canal.
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