Lloyd Edward Johnson (1896-1938) Volunteer
Lloyd Edward Johnson was 41-years old when he arrived in Spain in April 1937. He was the oldest of four sons born to Norwegian immigrants Seavert and Nesina Johnson. Johnson was born and raised in St. Paul, Minnesota. He applied for a position as an apprentice electrician with the Northern Pacific Railway Company when he was 16. During World War I, Johnson joined the US Army serving in Company G, 56th Engineers and rising to the rank of Corporal before the end of the war. After returning from the war, he married Dorthy Lurlene Ohrner and found employment as a purchasing agent at a printing office in St. Paul. Johnson and his wife had two boys Robert Lloyd Johnson and Donald James Johnson born in 1922 and 1926 respectively. The Johnsons divorced in 1928.
In 1937, when Johnson volunteered to serve in Spain, he was divorced and working as a magazine salesman. Johnson’s passport listed his address as Stillwater Avenue, White Bear Lake, Minnesota. He received his passport in at the end of March and sailed for Europe shortly afterward.
Johnson joined the George Washington Battalion and was listed as serving in Company 1, Section 1 in training. He went to the front with the Washington Battalion and remained with the unit when it merged with the Lincolns during the Brunete Offensive. His service in Spain is not well documented and it is not clear if he remained with Lincoln-Washington Battalion after Brunete. He is documented as serving with the Lincoln-Washington Battalion, Company One during the Ebro Offensive and is listed as missing in action on September 7, 1938, at Corbera.
Lloyd Edward Johnson, circa 1928-1930, Family photograph.
Lloyd Edward Johnson with family, circa 1928-1930. Family photograph.
~This brief sketch presents an overview of Lloyd Edward Johnson’s life. In some respects it contains more information than we have on many volunteers in ALBA’s records. Johnson’s grand daughter provided most of the information along with both of the photographs. If you have additional information about Lloyd E. Johnson please take a moment and leave a comment..
ALBA’s files on the volunteers are going through a significant upgrade with new information drawn from United States State Department Passport Records, International Brigade Archival records, and documents from Ancestry and other data bases. We would also like to ask for updates and corrections from the families of the volunteers.
I´ve read an article in a Spanish digital newspaper about a Spanish doctor who worked in a medical train during the war.
In it, they saw a sample page about the doctor´s file and I´ve found a reference of a surgical procedure that took place in that train on August 24th, 1937 to LLOYD JOHNSON of the 15th Brigade, 1ª Cia. Lincoln-Washington brigade.
You can see it here:
https://www.publico.es/politica/republica-historia-desconocida-tren-republicano-salvo-vida-1000-soldados.html
In Spain, every day, we found new old documents regarding the war, the first battle of WWII.
Hope we could make a deserved homage to the heroes who fought for liberty again fascism: this war is still on nowadays.
I´m working on some screenplays with that aim,
Very best and thank you for your work,
Pepe Caraballo
The woman who posted the pictures of lloyd edward johnson and his family is a fraud. That is not the lloyd johnson who fought in the spanish civil war. Lloyd was from bald eagle minn. after ww one he went west and worked in logging camps. For whatever reason the person posting the pictures of lloyd and his family is being dishonest. Lloyd was norwegian descent his father sever was born in 1868 in strandebarm norway the family immigrated to humbolt county iowa they are found in the 1885 iowa state census.lloyd had red hair and looked nothing like the people in the photo with family. You can verify this on ancestry . com by looking at ancestry of john and ellen johnson his parents. Or the Norwegian library Univ of north dakota or the Norwegian American society in madison wisconsin
I have two pictures taken in spain people who were there at the time of the spanish civil war both have the real lloyd edward johnsons picture and those he served with. The photos that the supposed grand daughter has sent you are not Lloyd. I tried sending the pictures i have to chris brooks but unintentionally deleated his email trying to figure out how to send the pictures.