Private Herbert Frederick Painter was a soldier in the Second World War.聽
Painter, who was from Yorkton, did not make it home.聽
His grave sits among hundreds at GroesbeekCanadian War Cemetery.聽
The cemetery and memorial is a Second World War Commonwealth War Graves Commission military war grave cemetery, located in the village of Groesbeek eight kilometres southeast of Nijmegen in the Netherlands. Of the total 2,619 burials, the cemetery contains 2,338聽Canadian聽soldiers.聽
The grave now has a face to go with the marker from decades ago, thanks to the efforts of聽Foundation Faces to Graves.聽
鈥淭he organization that built Groesbeek Canadian War Cemetery and still maintains and manages it聽聽is the Commonwealth War Graves Commission,鈥� explained聽Else Schaberg, a board member and Research Team member with Foundation Faces to Graves.鈥漈he organization is responsible worldwide for the cemeteries and monuments of the 1.7 million men and women who lost their lives during the First and Second World Wars.鈥澛�
The cemetery where Painter lies is a significant one.聽
鈥淚n Groesbeek we have the biggest Canadian War Cemetery in the Netherlands,聽this cemetery contains the graves of Canadian soldiers who died in the Northern Netherlands and Germany during the closing stages of the war,鈥� Schaberg explained to Yorkton This Week via email.聽
鈥淭he foundation Faces To Graves aims to give all these military heroes a 鈥榝ace鈥� by compiling, illustrating and publishing their life stories in a digital monument.聽聽
鈥淲e have to pay tribute to those young soldiers who lost their lives so far away from home fighting for our freedom; especially now most of their comrades are not able to do this any longer.聽
鈥淲e would like to recognize every single one of them by a photo and the story of his life, so they will never be forgotten.鈥澛�
Faces to Graves is relatively new at tackling its huge mandate.聽
鈥淚t was founded in 2015,鈥� said Schaberg.聽聽
鈥淥ur chair Alice van Bekkum got interested in Canadian soldiers who died in WW2 and are buried in The Netherlands and started researching a Canadian soldier. She came into contact with two men with the same interest and gradually the foundation was born. They called the foundation Faces to Canadian War Graves Groesbeek, in short Faces to Graves.聽
鈥淣ow the foundation consists of over 40 people, all volunteers: research team, editors and translators, support team, board and advisors.聽聽
鈥淎lso Dutch and Canadian High School Students take part in Faces to Graves School Projects by writing life stories.鈥澛�
The volunteers have been busy and successful.聽
鈥淯p to now we have put on our digital monument on our website around 400 life stories of the military heroes,鈥� said Schaberg.聽
鈥淚t takes a lot of time to find all information about one soldier; we research all the service files of a soldier, try to find family, photos, all other information before starting to write a life story, then the story has to be edited, translated, and put on our website.聽聽
鈥淎ll done by volunteers who have a regular job and in their spare time do this work with enthusiasm and dedication. We all have the same aim:聽never forget what these soldiers did for our freedom.鈥澛�
And now Painter is among the 400 stories, thanks in-part to a connection with the Royal Canadian聽Legion聽General Alexander Ross Branch No. 77.
鈥淚 wrote to the Yorkton Legion and got into contact with Brittany Johnson. I asked information about a soldier who lived in Yorkton, (Private Painter). Brittany helped me and also with finding information about other soldiers, we stayed in contact which I really cherish,鈥� said Schaberg.聽
Schaberg was good enough to provide a short summary of Painter鈥檚聽life story.聽
Herbert Frederick Painter was born on 19 March 1923 in Yorkton to Frederick Painter and Lily Painter.聽He was the eldest son, his brother Keith also joined the Canadian Forces (Navy).聽
Herbert enlisted in November 1943 and was sent to France on 21 July 1944, returned to England and sent again to France on 15 December 1944. He was posted to the Essex Scottish Regiment, which had set up camp in Groesbeek. On 8 February 1945 Operation Veritable (part of the Rhineland Offensive) started and the ESR fought heavy battles during that offensive.聽
Herbert was killed in action on 19 February 1945 near Calcar (Germany) and was buried in Bedburg, Germany, later reburied at the Canadian War Cemetery Groesbeek.聽
The full story is at:聽聽
The life stories are put in the organization鈥檚 digital monument on its website聽; so they are available for anyone interested in the stories.聽
鈥淲e have printed all the available photos of the soldiers 鈥� about 1500 photos 鈥搊n aluminum plates and put them on a standard. We placed them at the graves of the soldiers,鈥� said Schaberg聽
More work remains ahead for the volunteers聽as there are 2,618 soldiers buried in the Canadian War Graves Cemetery Groesbeek.聽
About聽2,300 of them are Canadian, of about 1750 we have now registered where they lived.聽聽
Of those 1750, 148 lived in Saskatchewan and of those four in Yorkton.聽
Yorkton soldiers which have been registered up to now are:
路聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 Charles Thomas Brown - son of Thomas and Grace Brown, died at the age of 22 on 10 November 1944.
路聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 聽Theodore Adam Grygar - son of Louis and Kathleen Grygar, died at the age of 20 on 1 December 1944
路聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 Walter Robert Middlemiss - son of James and Annie Middlemiss, died at the age of 21 on 2 March 1945
路聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 Ralph Henry George Bartlett, born in Waldron. His parents married in Yorkton, moved to Waldron and after the war back to Yorkton.
Of one of them HF Painter we wrote a life story, about the others we still need to write their stories.聽
鈥淲e have collected about 1500 photos of the soldiers,鈥� said Schaberg.聽聽
Beside the graves聽the names of soldiers missing are written on the walls of our Memorial, about 1035 names. About 99 are Canadian soldiers missing.聽
鈥淪o we still have a long way to go but we are doing our best and put a lot of time and effort in it because we love doing this and because it is so important we don鈥檛 forget what these heroes did for us,鈥� said Schaberg.
