“In the fierce struggle, not only for the liberation of our own Homeland, but also of friendly nations, your son Wilhelm Christian, voluntarily in the service of the Homeland, gave the high sacrifice of his life.”

From a letter from Queen Wilhelmina to the parents of Wil v.d. Burgt

Of the 281 graves in this cemetery, 280 are of fallen soldiers from the United Kingdom. But in one grave rests … a Dutchman.

Wilhelm Christian van der Burgt, as Wil is fully named, was born on West-Terschelling, on 11 April 1923. He is the son of Jacobus Wilhelm van der Burgt and Jacoba Geertruida Vossers.

After Wil passed the Gymnasium, he joined Rijkswaterstaat as a hydraulic engineer. During the final years of the war, Wil registered as a cantoneer at Rijkswaterstaat, Direction Limburg, Arrondissement Maas, partly to escape German control. After the regional liberation, on 5 October 1944, Wil, then 21 years old, enrolled in the Prinses Irene Brigade.

Read the extraordinary story of Wil van der Burgt, fallen for the freedom of the Netherlands. And the only Dutchman among the British at the CWGC cemetery in Overloon.