We have been contacted by Raimondo Bogaars who is the Secretary of the Valkenswaard War Cemetery Adoption Program. Private Frank Savin from High Wycombe is one of the British Army soldiers who are remembered in the Valkenswaard War Cemetery.

Valkenswaard is a small town in the south of Holland with a population of about 11,000. Its name derives from valk , the Dutch name for falcon, because it lay on a route where falcons migrated south each year. In the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries Valkenswaardian falconers were active at many European courts, in which falconing was a popular pastime. Valkenswaard’s falcon-catching area has now been built over and falcons are no longer caught there.

A Second World War cemetery, which contains 220 British soldiers and 2 RAF men, was created near Valkenswaard. These men fell during the liberation of Holland, some during the battle for Valkenswaard which began on September 17 1944. Others came from different battles in the region. They all died between 14 September 1944 and 29 November 1944, with one exception who died on 21 January 1945.

Directly after a battle these casualties were buried beside the road near the place where they fell. Initially local families took care of the graves.

On October 5 1945 the British Graves Concentration Unit No. 55 arrived in Valkenswaard. The job of these Units was to exhume, identify and rebury the war-dead of the British Commowealth in war-cemeteries, instead of their original graves. In Valkenswaard the war-cemetery is situated in a pine forest on the boundary between the town and the village of Westerhoven.

On June 15 1946 the cemetery was handed over to the Imperial War Graves Commission, now the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, who continue to maintain the cemetery. At first the graves were marked by simple crosses, then in 1949 these were replaced with the headstones that are there today.

The first of what are now annual commemorations took place directly after the war. Nowadays there are two commemorations during the year. The first is on May 4, which is a day of remembrance throughout Holland. The second (and normally larger commemoration) is on September 17, the anniversary of the liberation of Valkenswaard and the surrounding area by the British Army.

This year due to the Covid -19 restrictions only a small ceremony will be held by the mayor and it will not be open to the public. Flowers may of course be laid at any time by members of the family, or indeed anybody else.

Private Frank Savin

Frank was born in 1925, the youngest of the three sons of Jesse and Emily Savin nee Saunders who had married in High Wycombe in 1902. His brothers were James and Sidney, and they had a sister Violet.

Frank attended the Loakes Park Church of England school, and then went to work at electrical instrument-makers Ernest Turner’s factory in Totteridge Road, High Wycombe.

In 1939 the family were living at No.83 Kitchener St on the western side of the town. Violet Savin married in 1941 at the age of 21 to Charles King. The couple went on to have three daughters, June born in 1943, Shirley in 1946 and Sylvia in 1949.

Frank enlisted in the British Army in about August 1943 when he had turned 18. He was posted to the Oxford and Bucks Light Infantry as a Private with the service number 14425734.

After his training had been completed he was sent to join in the British Army of Liberation, the official name given to the British Army forces which fought on the Western Front of World War II, between the Invasion of Normandy and the end of the war. His brother Sidney was also with them in France and Violet’s husband Charles served in South East Asia.

Frank had only been in action for a few weeks when he was severely wounded and died on September 21 1944.

On the first anniversary of Frank’s death in September 1945 four notices were published in the “In Memoriam” section on the front page of the Bucks Free Press. They were from:

“His broken-hearted mother and brother Jim”

“His brother Sid and brother-in-law Charles”

“His sister Violet and niece June”

and intriguingly “His friends, Margaret and Kathleen”

All these notices also mentioned that Frank’s nickname was “Ticker”.

The following year in September 1946 there was just the one “In Memoriam” notice from “ His friends, Margaret and Kathleen”

Were these friends of Frank from his school-days, or perhaps friends at the Ernest Turner factory ?

It would seem likely that people who knew Frank are still living in the local area. The Valkenswaard War Cemetery Adoption Program would very much like to communicate with such people and I would ask them to contact me, Mike Dewey, by email deweymiked@aol.com or phone 01628 52507. I will then pass on details to Raimondo Bogaars in Valkenswaard, Holland.

The Valkenswaard War Cemetery Adoption Program was started in 1918 to promote the cemetery and its meaning, both to the local community and internationally. The ancestry of the men honoured in the cemetery is researched and wherever possible their families are contacted. Certificates are awarded to these families and assistance provided to them if they visit the cemetery. In this way it is hoped that the bond between the local community and the families of those in the cemetery will be strengthened and perpetuated.