An email from across the ocean and a reminder of a Lethbridge soldier

Most Canadians know that school children in the Netherlands meticulously care for the graves of Canadian soldiers who liberated their country in World War Two. Every year on May 4, dutch communities hold ceremonies at the Canadian cemeteries there, in memory of the soldiers who gave their lives and those wounded in helping to free the Netherlands.

In the email, Marjolein Bronkhorst explained how her country, for decades, remembered the men from so far away who died for her and her country’s freedom.

“Normally we come together at 7.00 pm, music is played, poems and stories are told, we remember and are thankful and humble. The last post, silence and the national anthems. This year each grave has a vase with tulips, one red.”

Groesbeek Canadian War Cemetery – photo courtesy of Marjolein Bronkhorst

Because of COVID-19, they couldn’t hold the ceremony this year. However, Marjolein lives near the Groesbeek Canadian War Cemetery. She went there by herself and stood at the grave of a Canadian soldier who was born and raised in Lethbridge.

“I paid my respects to George Lightfoot and his family.”

I asked if I could call and speak with Marjolein. Her sweet answer:

“To me it is more important that you try to find relatives. They need to know that he is not forgotten. May I please suggest that you put them in the centre of attention. Maybe an article about George, his family, the cemetery and the commemorations – I prefer to be just an catalyst.”

“Men like George need to be remembered,” she wrote.

George’s family lives on Vancouver Island. I reached out to local military historian, Retired Warrant Officer, Glenn Miller, who was able to tell us that George Joseph Lightfoot, was the son of George H. and Ellen M. A. Lightfoot, originally of Wellington, British Columbia. They had farmed a section of land near Del Bonita.

George Jr. was born in Lethbridge in 1920 and joined the Canadian army at the age of 24, enlisting in Alberta. He was part of the South Saskatchewan Regiment, which was part of the 2nd Canadian Division that entered and helped liberate the Netherlands on September 12, 1944. His division was then part of the Allied drive into Germany, in which Private Lightfoot lost his life on December 20, 1944.

Lightfoot is buried in the Netherlands’ Groesbeck Canadian War Cemetery, which contains 2,610 World War Two Commonwealth burials. A Memorial at the Cemetary also commemorates the names of more than 1,000 members of the Commonwealth land forces, whose graves are not known.

This May marks 75-years since Canadian troops sacrificed life and limb to help liberate the Netherlands and the end of the war in Europe. The people there have never forgotten and would like us not to forget as well.

“At the going down of he sun and in the morning we will remember them.”

New Historic Canada tribute Dutch Liberation:

by Dori Modney

An email from across the ocean and a reminder of a Lethbridge soldier

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