Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

John Hermanson was born in Sweden on 6th January 1987. At the age of 19 years, he along with a friend joined the Swedish merchant marine. He joined his ship at Gotenburg on a voyage that was to take him to Australia. On 27 January 1907, Jack left the ship soon after it arrived in Port Pirie and worked, presumably as a labourer in the district before moving to Adelaide in 1909.

John applied for Australian citizenship in February 1909 and became a naturalized Australia. it was presumably his intention to stay in Australia as he never returned to his native Sweden or saw his family again. John married in 1911 and was to have four children before his marriage ended.

John attempted to join the First AIF in 1914 but was rejected because he had been suffering from tuberculosis. After the First World War he made his way to the Riverland region of South Australia to work as a mechanic and engine driver during the construction of the irrigation town of Barmera. John was to spend the rest of his life in Barmera working as an engine driver on a small railway system and as a mechanic on two pumping systems supplying water from Lake Bonney to the growing town of Barmera and later on a major pumping system at nearby Cobdogla supplying irrigation to the grape and fruit industry of the region.

During the Second World War John, now 56 years of age, was again determined to serve his adopted country. He joined the local home defence unit in January 1943 and served with the rank of Private until the end of the war when his unit was disbanded on 11 October 1945.

John died in 1957 and is buried in the Barmera Cemetery. His two sons, Arthur and William Hermanson served in the 2/10 Battalion in North Africa and New Guinea during the Second World War.