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Attention: the War Dead Register only lists Belgian fallen soldiers.  
The War Dead Register provides basic personal information (name, first name, date and place of birth, etc.) and does not contain military files (giving a complete overview of the military career). According to date of birth the files are kept either by the Royal Military Museum or by the Defence archives service. The files safeguarded at the Military Museum can be consulted on site (Parc du Cinquantenaire in Brussels). The files kept up till now by Defence are currently transferred to the General State Archives.
The date on which they will be once again available has not yet been determined.   

 

Archives of the Royal Military Museum 

Documentation Centre 
Parc du Cinquantenaire 3
1000 Brussels
E-mail : cdoc.klm-mra@warheritage.be   
Website: www.warheritage.be

Cemetery details

Where?
Verbrandebrugsesteenweg, 1850 Grimbergen
 
View on map

History

The hamlet of Verbrande Brug is part of the municipality of Grimbergen and its cemetery is associated with the raids from the Antwerp stronghold in which the Belgians attack the flanks of the German troops in August and September 1914 in an attempt to stop enemy progress.
The cemetery is especially connected with Corporal Léon Trésignies. On 26 August 1914 his regiment, the 2nd chasseurs à pied, arrives at the Willebroek Canal. In Verbrande Brug the men are standing in front of a drawn bridge and the lowering mechanism is situated on the other bank, which is occupied by the Germans. 
Léon Trésignies volunteers to swim across the canal and lower the bridge. He manages to reach the other side and to set the mechanism in motion, but the Germans shoot him. A monument is later erected on the site of his heroic deed and is the location of an annual ceremony held to this day.  

 

Casualties

20 First World War (8 unidentified)

 

Description

The honours court is situated behind the church and is completely cleared except for the military graves. These are arranged in two parallel rows and are marked with the Belgian military headstone. Corporal Trésignies rests in grave 11.