Orthen Cemetery Den Bosch

Netherlands, the North Brabant 's-Hertogenbosch

The cemetery Orthen (formerly Groenendaal), contains a number of war graves. However, this cemetery contains besides the "common" war graves, two very special war graves. This is the grave of two children who died just after the liberation and the grave of a British lieutenant of the First World War. A striking fact is that both of the tombs date from the same date (November 11), although there are 26 years in between.

The tomb of Bram Lafeber (born December 6, 1932) and Frans Moussault (born October 24, 1930) who died after liberation is very special. The tomb which was designed by the renowned designer Peter Verdonk shows two boys who are playing with a bomb, the boys are hereby guarded by a guardian angel. The boys died on November 11, 1944, after a bomb that they had found exploded. The obituary then stated: "Due to a fatal accident during their game".

The second special grave is that of a British lieutenant of the First World War. The Netherlands was neutral during World War I and therefore the number of graves from this war is very minimal. Those buried here will often have a specific story, often they didn’t die from war wounds. Similarly, the British Gilbert Thomas Gore McMicking, who was born in 1894. He died on the day of the armistice. Information provided by the Royal Anglian Regiment Archives mention that McMicking was on vacation in Germany in July 1914 and was made and a prisoner of war. He escaped, was arrested and escaped again. He died in a hospital in Den Bosch, unfortunately it is unknown how he ended up here.

The cemetery also contains a plot with 16 Dutch war graves. These are graves of soldiers, resistance fighters and civilians. Several other Dutch war graves lie scattered throughout the cemetery, mainly civilian casualties and a single resistance fighter. During the liberation of Den Bosch, 236 civilians were killed, only some of them rest in this cemetery today. Of the 146 Welsh soldiers who died during the liberation of the city, not one is buried in Den Bosch, the majority is buried in the war cemetery in Uden

During World War II, the cemetery also contained a German plot. Some of the Germans buried here were coming from the Reserve Kriegslazarett in Den Bosch. The German war victims were transferred in 1949 to the large German War Cemetery in Ysselsteyn.

On the cemetery is also the grave of Gijsbert Kooij, who died in New Guinea in 1962.

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