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Pictured above is Willemien Rieken. She was only 9 years old when she first began laying flowers on the grave of William Edmond, a Scottish soldier who fought and died to liberate her Dutch village.
From the day he died, and for 75 years, she looked after his grave and kept his memory alive.
During WWII, William Edmond served with the 1st Airborne Reconnaissance Squadron, and took part in the Battle of Arnhem in the Netherlands. Sadly, at age 27, on Sept 17, 1944, he was shot in the back by a German sniper and fell to the ground. One of his comrades, Sgt David Christie, rushed to his aid, but nothing could be done to save William.
Seconds before dying, he said to Sgt Christie: "Tell my wife I love her". This British soldier was then buried at the Arnhem Oosterbeek War Cemetery.
Rieken was one of the Flower Children.
W. Edmond
Why named Flower Children? The children who lived near the scene of the fighting at the time were given an Allied war grave to maintain. And Rieken adopted it ever since and looked after the grave of William Edmond. She looked after the grave for over 75 years, until her death, on 24 Jul 2020, at 85, in Doorwerth, a village in the eastern Netherlands. She was one of the last surviving Flower Children, young people who laid flowers at hundreds of graves of Allied casualties in a ceremony after the end of the war.
Dutch children are shown laying flowers on the graves of the men who died in an attempt to liberate Arnhem
The flower laying has become a tradition and is for families and inhabitants the emotional highlight of the commemoration.
