Message from the other side


- On the 16th of may 2008 I received a mail from Dave Brickles in England (source Webshots)

http://community.webshots.com/user/veterans103 click :commonwealthgraves-2 (4)(5)

"can you help to build up a picture of what happened with

Frederick Browning burried at the church at Gijselbrechtegem".

On the 30th of august a mail from Petra Demulder in Belgium ,also via webshots who asked

for help to find the family of Frederick Browning. Her grandmother found in may 1940

near her destroyed home ,on her meadow ,where she saw a grave, a photo.

During 68 years this picture was kept in the family and handed over from the

grandmother to the granddaughter Petra.She tried by while to find the family

but failed.Last months she dreamed several times of the picture and decided

to start a new search.When I received her mail I thought "a present from the Gods "

Indeed ; on the reverse of the photo there was an inscription:

Pre.F.Browning 6398789; it was Frederick.

Petra also remembered her mother told the temporary grave was situated at

Wortegem (near Gijselbrechtegem) on the corner of the Kruiskesstraat and a blind alley

(on the map -marked with a X -)

I started also a search .In the environment of the location of the temporary grave

I questioned elder people. Soon I found Léona and later Gabriël Debosschere.

Their parental home was near by the Kruiskesstraat

(on the map - marked with a XX )

Their story:

About 15 years old in 1940 ,they had to leave the home in the middle of may as the

Third Englisch Expedition Corps was on the hills of Wortegem ( West of the river De Schelde )

in position and ready to confront the Germans , ready to cross the river. On their return the

farm was very damaged , surrounding fields full of craters , ( on the map -marked with a XXX)

a brenn -carrier , burned out ,half-sank in the brook. Also three graves near by.

These soldiers rest at the churchyard in Anzegem.

End of may the mayor ordered some municipal workers to move a soldier from the grave in the Kruiskesstraat

to the churchyard at Gijselbrechtegem.

Gabriël and his father, on their way to the fields ,passed and saw a soldier was put into a coffin .

Gabriël cannot confirm it was Frederick but it was on the location Petra's grandmother found the picture.

As there are TOO MUCH coincidences I titled the page :

"message from the other side"

-little palpable souvenirs of Sue and Marions' Dad

and now a photo (out from nowhere) with a handwriting on the reverse

-mail from Dave at the same time Petra saw Frederick in her dreams

-photo of Frederick found in a meadow , kept and cherised by three generations in the family of Petra

-my visit to the churchyard in Gijselbrechtegem and attracted by the slak with the farewell of Marion and Sue , I put on the WWW

-the visit of Susan in may 2008 to the grave at Gijselbrechtegem

- my conversation with Gabriël , probably the last man who saw Frederick

-my opinion :"as long as someone remembers you , you aren't realy dead"

Frederick enters at his rest.

Documentation
Positions of the British and the German army near Gijselbrechtegem on De schelde

Unities of the III Expedition Corps

churchyard Gijselbrechtegem

battlefield at Gijselbrechtegem view from De schelde

what happened on the 21-05-1940 and 22-05-1940 on De Schelde south of Oudenaarde
Source : Geschied-en Oudheidkundige Kring van Ronse en Het Tenement van Inde
Auteur : Dubois G.

Commonwealth War Graves around De Schelde (part 1)