Man meets Dutch volunteer caring for father's WW2 grave

A man from Liverpool has said it was "absolutely marvellous" to meet the Dutch volunteer who cares for his father's World War Two grave in the Netherlands.

Sgt Leslie Heath was 30 when he died in February 1945 in Venray while fighting to liberate the country. His son, Leslie, who was only aged one at the time, had always been told he was missing.

But, after being put in touch with Rob Vdhoven, of Venray War Cemetery Foundation, following a BBC North West appeal to help trace families of the men, Leslie learned his father had actually been buried in Venray.

"I've learned more about my father in the last eight weeks than I've known most of my life," he said.

"I was always brought up with the belief that my father was never found and my mother died believing that," Leslie said.

"He was the love of my mother's life, I know that. She never remarried."

Earlier this year, volunteers at a war cemetery in the Netherlands asked for help to put photographs by the graves at Venray to "tell the story behind the headstone" of the north-west of England soldiers buried there.

"They don't just adopt the grave, they're like detectives," Leslie said.

"They actually found out my father was one of the last men buried because most people there were buried in 1945 but my dad was in a temporary grave that they didn't find until 1947."

Rob, who tends to the grave once a month, said it was important to remember the sacrifices of the men buried there.

"Someone has to care about it," he said.

"Because of the man who's laying at the cemetery we can walk freely in the Netherlands and that's a thing that we can never forget."

Leslie said the care and attention the volunteers give to the graves was "absolutely amazing".

"It gives you a hell of a lot of comfort," he said.

"That they actually put photographs on the grave of every soldier to make it more human.

"It's not a piece of concrete that's there. It's a man."

Leslie's daughter, Michelle, who helped arrange Rob's visit to Liverpool to meet her father, said the family wanted to thank him personally for all that he did for her grandad's grave.

She said her father had given Rob one of his father's war medals as a thank you gift.

On meeting Rob, Leslie said: "We connected immediately, and I felt like I had known him for ages.

"It was a strange feeling, but it was a nice feeling, you know? A really nice feeling."

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