Can you help honour fallen Deeside serviceman buried in Dutch war cemetery?

An appeal has been made to help trace the family of a fallen Second World War serviceman from Deeside.

The call comes from a group of volunteers from the CWGC Venray War Cemetery Adoption Foundation (Stichting Adoptiegraven) who are dedicated to honouring the sacrifice of those buried at the cemetery.

As part of its work, the group is looking to find a photograph of each person buried at the cemetery, which is printed on a metal plate and placed in front of the graves on special occasions.

There are 693 men laid to rest at the Venray War Cemetery, of which 663 graves have been identified, and 30 remain unknown.

All but one of those buried at the cemetery are military personnel from the UK, Australia, New Zealand, or Canada.

So far, the group has managed to find around 360 photos and has been in touch with the families of the men buried in Venray.

However, they have not been able to find a photo of Evan Owen Davies who is buried at the cemetery in the south-east of the Netherlands.

The group have been trying to locate the family members of Evan Davies whose address was recorded as Chester Road Shotton.

Tom van Mierlo, a group board member said, “The information in the database of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission doesn’t mention his family or hometown.”

The group found Evan Owen Davies’ address in the National Probate Calendar, which states, “Davies, Evan Owen of 40 Chester-road Shotton died 1 June 1945 on war service.”

“Administration Llandudno. 6 November 1946 to Margaret Ellen Roberts (wife of George Cyril Roberts) Effects £107 13s 3d.”

Tom said, “We don’t have much information about Evan Owen Davies.”

“The CWGC Venray War Cemetery Adoption Foundation is searching for his family to add his photo to the cemetery’s tribute.”

Anyone who can help is asked to email tom@adoptiegraven-venray.nl