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RSS FeedsGeraardsbergen (Grammont) Communal Cemetery
Geraardsbergen, also known as the "Pearl of the Flemish Ardennes" is situated in the valley of the river Dender in Flanders (Belgium), near the glowing hills of the Flemish Ardennes 42 kilometres south-west of Brussels. The city is renowned for its splendid nature and folklore. The history of Geraardsbergen goes back to 1068-70 when it was founded by Boudewijn IV, on a hill that had been bought from a man named Geraard. In the 12th century Geraardsbergen had a flourishing textile industry but over the next 300 years, it suffered from wars, fire and epidemics. The fortress of Geraadsbergen was demolished in 1690.
The Geraardsbergen (Grammont) Communal Cemetery is about 2 kilometres east of the town centre, on the north side of the road to Oudenaarde. The graves are located towards the centre of the cemetery and in the eastern part are the graves of 18 airmen. Four are Canadian, recovered in 1944 from the downed 426 Squadron Halifax III which had a reported crew of eight. Clifford Stanley Phillips of Tisdale, Saskatchewan; Thomas Wessel Taylor of Chisholm, Alberta (the navigator); Jack Edwin McIntyre of Biggar, Saskatchewan; and Joseph Edouard Jean Guy Arbour of Montreal, Quebec. British flight engineer, Roy Ellerslie of Birmingham is also buried at Geraardsbergen.
A military funeral will be provided November 10 in Geraardsbergen (Germont) Communal Cemetery for the three airmen (all of them Canadian) whose remains were recovered in August and September of 1997 from the crash site along with the wreckage of the Halifax Bomber. The airmen who will be laid to rest with their comrades are Pilot Officer Wilbur Bentz, the pilot, from Medicine Hat, Alberta; Pilot Officer Fred Roach, the tail-gunner, from Leamington, Ontario; and Pilot Officer John (Jack) Summerhayes, the mid-upper gunner, from Brantford, Ontario.
