Father and son united in the same military cemetery
Professional soldier Ivon Thomas was killed as a guide in 1944 while on a Canadian patrol near Damme. Ivon, 38, was buried in the Bruges military cemetery in the presence of the province's military commander, the city council and the Governor, amid great interest.
One of his children, Corporal Roger Thomas, died in 1953 barely nine years after his father as a Korea volunteer at Chatkol in Korea. The transport ship USS General Blatchford brought his remains to Zeebrugge. After the funeral mass in the Military Chapel, burial takes place in the military cemetery in Bruges.
Thus, father and son find a final resting place close to each other.
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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.
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