The creation of the Canadian cemetery

The provisional cemetery at Maldegem

The provisional Canadian cemetery MR/OO6998 at Maldegem on the Aardenburgkalseide

In the months of September and October 1944 many dozens of Canadian fell during the battles for the Leopold Canal and during Operation Switchback. Canadians who fell in battle were buried here and there in the Meetjesland and elsewhere: in Assenede, Bentille, Boekhoute, Eeklo, Oosteeklo and Oedelem.

Many were hurriedly buried in a simple field grave. Most were even during and shortly after the war brought together on the provisional cemetery in Maldegem. The meadow belonged to Omer Clyncke and for weeks fallen Canadians were brought here and the rows of crosses grew ever more numerous.

Several men from Maldegem i.a. Prosper De Rycke and René Buysse helped the Canadians to bury their dead. When Operation Switchback was over there were 198 crosses for Canadians and 4 for German soldiers.

When on Wednesday 9 May 1945 Maldegem officially celebrated the liberation, a parade went first to the Canadian cemetery to honour the soldiers who were buried there. The pupils of the High School had put flowers on every grave. Victory had been won very dearly. It was no doubt the only official ceremony ever held here because the buried were soon disinterred and transferred to Adegem.

The Canadian cemetery in Adegem

Already in February 1945 construction of the new military cemetery on the Prince Boudewijn (Baldwin) Lane was going ahead at full speed. The remarkable thing is that the land where the Canadians were to be buried was on a prehistoric burial ground. It was a sandy plot of land of more than 2 hectares where the young lads from Adegem liked to play football.  The owners, Adolf and Lodewijk Standaert from Balgerhoeke agreed to the expropriation of their land and the deed of sale was signed on 22 April 1949.

The Canadians thought this piece of land was well suited for their purposes: it was on a major road, it was sandy and the discharge of water was good.  The town council of Adegem supported the Canadian plans and donated a part of the public road.  On 15 April 1945 the town council received the following letter from Lt. Colonel M.E. Stolt who was attached to the HQ of the 21st Army Group:

"Mister Burgomaster,
I have the honour of requesting the approval by yourself and your town council of the handover of the plot of land where the British military cemetery is built to the AD.G.R & E.H.Q 21 Army Group (Rear) B.L.A."
This cemetery must be considered as a permanent British military cemetery. If necessary an entrance and entrance way should be provided. Please let me have this document as soon as possible.
Lt. Col. Stolt M.C.A.D.G.R. & E."

To which they replied as follows after the town council meeting of 26 April 1945:

"Colonel,
We refer to your letter of 15 April 1945 addressed to the Burgomaster of Adegem. We have the honour of informing you that the Town Council in its session of 26 April 1945 unanimously approved the choice of the place for the erection of the British military cemetery and that the Town Council has no objections at all against this.
We are honoured that the earth of our town will be allowed to keep the remains of so many valiant heros who have with their blood bought the freedom of our Land and our People.
The population of our town will respectfully keep the place where your soldiers, our dear friends, will rest.

Yours sincerely - in the name of the Town Council,

Prosper de Smet, Secretary

Leopold Van Waetermeulen, Burgomaster"

Ronald Haunts, Tom Sherdown and Norman Burrows were the Canadians
who in the first half of 1945 built the Adegem War Cemetery.

Immediately after levelling the terrain in the Spring of 1945 the first KIA were already brought in.  These transports would arrive for many more weeks.  On every grave a provisional cross was placed.  It was made of zinc and had the ID information of the soldier on it.  These zinc crosses were made in the Boels hall in the center of the town by a group of Canadians with the help of a few people from Adegem.  Two men from Ghent used templates to paint the many hundreds of names on the crosses. The cemetery was provisionally closed off with concrete poles, wire and a wooden entrance gate.

Seargeant Ronald Haunts was responsible for laying out the cemetery.  He stayed with the De Keyser-Pots family in the center of town.  A member of the family Gustaaf de Keyser was the interpreter.  He had lived in America and more recently fled the murderous V1 bombs that rained down on Antwerp.  He was also the time-watcher for the workmen.  Haunts and his group had about 60 Belgian workmen who everywhere collected the Canadian dead.

For years this souvenir was to be found on the central Cross of Sacrifice.  It had been brought to Adegem thanks to Henri Zutterman together with those who had fallen at Moerkerke and who had been buried provisionally in Oedelem.

Canadians were also put up in the pub called "Het Gemeentehuis" (The Town Hall) of Mrs De Laere, a widow and in the buildings of the girls school.  It would cost the town 44,000 francs and quite a bit of work later to put the school and its class rooms back in good working order.

At the end of May 1945 ther were already 822 graves in the cemetery and in the following years many more were transferred here.  There was a provisional wooden Cross of Sacrifice that had been made in France.  A plan to turn the Adegem cemetery into the one great cemetery for all Canadians who had died during WW II in Belgium and the Netherlands was soon abandoned because of the enormous expense.  Now the register of the Adegem Canadian War Cemetery contains 1145 names:

The cemetery is situated as a green and quiet oasis on the busy N9 between Ghent and Bruges.  When you walk on to the cemetery you see the symmetrical layout, perfect until it was slightly disturbed in 1993 when a new entranceway was made. Left and right of the monumental main entrance are the crosses and in the hall behind the monument Cross of Sacrifice texts in three languages remind us why the cemetery was built here.  In the Cemetery Register numerous are the visitors who write down their often remarkable and stirring testimonies.

The actual cemetery is partitioned in 12 separate plots each numbered with a Roman numeral.  The rows in the plots received a letter and finally each grave in the rows received a number in Arabic. Private Anthony Devreker, killed in action on 30 March 1945, aged 22, lies buried in plot XI, row H, grave 3.

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission

The Canadian Cemetery at Adegem is the property of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (until 1960 : the Imperial War Graves Commission). This Commission was founded on 21 May 1917. Its purpose is the upkeep of the cemeteries of the whole Commonwealth, wherever they may be on this earth. They also collect the data on known and unknown war dead and on civilians and pass it on to the relatives. Even now the Commission in Ypres receives every day letters from relatives of those killed in action with requests for information.

The total number of known dead remembered by the Commonwealth is 1,694,899. And 110,124 of these are Canadians:

All these war dead are buried in 23,102 cemeteries in 140 different countries. The country with the greatest number of them is France (574.873); Belgium counts 204,816 in 623 cemeteries.

Almost all cemeteries look like peaceful gardens with flowers, shrubs and trees. There is a special service taking care of the planting. Plants are chosen in such a way that every season gives the cemeteries a special flavour. The central point everywhere is the Cross of Sacrifice with on it the sword of the Crusaders. In 1989-1990 the Commission spent more than £ 19,000,000 on personnel and maintenance of grave stones etc.

The HQ of the Commission is in Maidenhead in England. Belgium together with Czechoslovakia, Danmark, Germany, Luxemburg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland and Sweden belongs to the Northern Europe Area. The headquarters of this area is in Elverdingestraat 82, Ypres where everyone can go with his questions on Canadian and other Commonwealth war dead.

The flag pole stands just about in the same place as where in 1953 the remembrance hall will be built.