Edward Swart, a British man with Dutch roots

The story of Edward Cornelius Martin Swart began on 9 October 1920 in the village of Wath upon Dearne, South Yorkshire, near Rotherham in England. He was named after his grandfathers: Edward on his mother’s side and Cornelis Martinus on his father’s side.

As his surname suggests, part of the Swart family history is in the Netherlands. Indeed, father Gijsbertus de Swart was born in Buren, Gelderland, on 6 August 1896. In the family, the story goes that Gijsbertus moved to England to avoid military service.

Edward and 2 of his brothers joined the army. Edward was assigned on 25 July 1944 to his final squadron, the 102nd ‘Ceylon’ squadron at RAF Pocklington, about 20 kilometres east of York. 

In the months of August, September and October of 1944, Edward completed a total of 20 missions in various crews, before things went completely wrong in November. 

Read this remarkable story and extensive dossier in his biography on this website.

Many thanks for compiling this dossier to Lennard Bolijn of TracesofWar