Other Canadian visitors

The Canada Day of 13 September 1987 was very special for Jozef De Keyser of Adegem:
he was about to see again his friend Ronald Haunts.  R. Haunts had led the laying out of the
Canadian cemetery and enjoyed the hospitality of the De Keyser family in Adegem in 1945-46.

Besides the visitors one saw on the traditional Canada Day many more Canadians came to the cemetery in groups or on their own.  In June 1946 for instance the Allied Belgium Club received several Canadian families who had made the long voyage from overseas.  The group travelled by train and after Adegem they left for Knokke where they received an account of the bloody battles that preceeded the liberation.

And in those years after the war Adegem was sometimes faced with remarkable requests from far away Canada.  For instance the burgomaster Leopold Van Watermeulen and Herman Van Damme, the village priest confirmed on 16 September 1946 that the earth that had been put in a box did indeed come from the grave of Corporal Percy who had died on 7 September 1944.  This request came from his widow who, with this, yet wanted to have something of her husband.  When the earth was blessed and declared authentic, the box was sealed and sent off.

The Belgian Association of Canadian Veterans was almost always represented on the official Canada Day in September.  On 3 May 1959 though this association organized a separate commemoration in collaboration with the Ghent branch of the British Legion and this in the presence of Ambassodor Sidney Pierce, consul-general Muntz of England, Mr. Mariën, governor of East-Flanders and numerous other dignitaries.  Also present at this ceremony with their flags were several veterans' associations from the surrounding towns.  As usual the important visitors were next received in the Adegem town hall by burgomaster De Kesel.  There they signed the Golden Book and a reception was held.

On 20 Octoboer 1950 an important delegation of the Canadian Navy came to visit their fallen comrades.  They were followed later on by Canadian veterans who wanted to reconnoiter once again the old battlefields.  At the beginning of July 1964 a delegation of The Royal Canadian Legion was received in the Adegem town hall after a visit to the cemetery.  The visiting Canadian veterans, on a Maple Leaf Up Tour in Europe were very happy about the way they were received at Adegem. Their president Mr. Fred T. O'Brecht said: "On behalf of all members of the Maple Leaf Up Tour, may I offer our sincere thanks to you for the very cordial and warm reception we received on our arrival in Adegem. We were especially pleased that you honored us by accompanying us to the Canadian cemetery for the short, but most impressive, ceremony. I know, I speak for everyone on the tour when I say that we will long remember Adegem and the kind reception which we received there..."

In between the groups of military men there were also groups of young Canadians who came to the cemetery.  This happened almost always thanks to Norbert and Jackie Pauwels, two brother from Adegem who had emigrated to Canada and who had started there as one of their many activities a travel agency, Pauwels Travel.  And this agency brought many young people on a tour of Europe.  And on these trips the brothers didn't forget the Canadian cemetery in Adegem.

In August 1970 about fifty students came to visit the cemetery.  They walked among the graves and many took something with them as a souvenir: a little earth, a flower, a maple twig, etc.  Later on the group were received in the town hall by burgomaster De Kesel and they were very happy with the pleasant and spontaneous reception they received.  Needless to say many similar visits followed and what was striking about these visits were the gratitude these Canadians showed towards Adegem and its people.

The longer the war was behind us the more veterans came to visit.  In the middle of a very brisk snow shower at the end of March 1978 a group of Canadian members of Parliament arrived at the cemetery where they were received by Ambassador Lamoureux and burgomaster Rotsart de Hertaing.  Several of them had themselves fought in the area.  Also in March but then in 1980 a liberator came to visit the Meetjesland: it was Major Paterson who in 1944 had liberated Oostkamp-Maldegem and the surrounding area and who was called the hero of the Battle for Oostkamp-Moerbrugge.  During a tour of the cemetery the officer read the names of the men he had personally known to have been killed.  Individually or in group, from the four corners of the world, the visitors came and keep coming to this day.

On the foot of the Cross of Sacrifice there is more often than not a bouquet of poppies, laid there by the members of a regiment, by a general or by someone passing by...  The Canadians certainly don't forget their fallen men.

Visit of the Canadian cemetery by the members of the Canadian Parachute Battalion Association on 11 June 1989