Second World War scrapbooks bring memories back to life for Globe readers

Globe and Mail

26-05-2025

The black and white photograph has faded over the years, but it's not hard to make out the nine Canadian soldiers smiling for the camera, many with their arms draped across each other's shoulders.
They're standing in a field somewhere in Italy near the end of the Second World War. There's a tiny 'x' above one of the men, with an arrow leading to a flowing signature – 'David Lloyd Ferris 64 Victoria St., Simcoe Ont Canada'.
His son, David Ferris, saw the photo for the first time this month – 80 years after it was glued into a scrapbook by Klaas Nieborg, a 25-year-old school teacher in Groningen, the Netherlands.
Mr. Nieborg compiled two scrapbooks in the spring of 1945 as Canadian soldiers drove the German army out of Groningen. The books – comprising 250 pages of photographs, signatures and mementoes from hundreds of Canadian servicemen – were donated to a local archive a few years ago by Mr. Nieborg's son. This month, the archives posted digitized copies online as part of the 80th anniversary of Victory in Europe Day.
A recent Globe and Mail story about the scrapbooks led many readers to scour the pages to learn more about loved ones who served in the Netherlands. For some, just seeing the signature of their father or grandfather brought memories back to life. Others, such as Mr. Ferris, got to see images of their dads as young men, frozen in time.
'I was absolutely amazed to see that photo,' said Mr. Ferris, 73, who lives in Simcoe. He also spotted the signature of another soldier from the community: his father's buddy, Stan Frankis. 'He was their sergeant,' Mr. Ferris said. 'They remained friends after the war.'
His father, who died in 2009, never mentioned serving in the Netherlands. He'd joined an artillery regiment and was among the Allied troops who landed in Anzio, Italy, in January, 1944. Mr. Ferris said his father spent several months in Italy before his regiment was attached to the American Fifth Army, which made its way through France and Germany.
Mr. Ferris has no idea how a photo of his dad ended up in Mr. Neiborg's scrapbook.
'I never heard him say that he was in the Netherlands, but once they convoyed out of Germany, I suppose they could have touched up there.'
The scrapbooks brought back complicated memories for Dara Legere – that of an unexpected phone call in 2002 informing him that he had a half-sister in Rotterdam.
The caller, John Boers, was from the Association of Liberation Children. He shared that Mr. Legere's dad, Philip, had fathered a daughter while stationed in the Netherlands in the summer of 1945. The organization estimates that as many as 7,000 Dutch children were conceived by Allied troops during that period.
'We didn't know anything about her,' Mr. Legere said from his home in Joggins, N.S.
Philip grew up in Joggins and joined the army in 1942 at the age of 18, largely to avoid working in the local coal mines. He spent a couple of years in England and landed in France just after D-Day in the summer of 1944.
His regiment was among the Canadian troops that liberated the Netherlands in April, 1945. After coming home, Philip worked at an aircraft factory in nearby Amherst, married Patricia St. Peters and raised three children. He died in 1977; his wife passed 20 years later.
Mr. Legere said it was only through the Dutch organization that his family learned of their sibling, Yvonne Fraaye, who was born in March, 1946.
They were told that Philip got into an accident while driving a military truck and spent time in an Amsterdam hospital run by the Canadian Forces. While recovering, he had a romantic liaison with a nurse, Huibredina van Gurp, before he was shipped back to Canada in August, 1945.
Dutch family's WWII-era scrapbooks keep the names and exploits of Canadian soldiers fresh on the page
According to Mr. Legere, Ms. van Gurp had no way of contacting Philip. All she had was his name scribbled on a matchbook, along with a mailbox address in Ottawa that was used by the Canadian Army.
Philip never spoke about the truck accident or his relationship. 'Nobody knew. Not even his best friends who were all in the war together,' Mr. Legere said.
He and his brother were introduced to Ms. Fraaye on a Dutch television show in 2004. In an e-mail this week, Ms. Fraaye said she was seven years old when her mother, nicknamed Dien, told her about her Canadian father.
Philip had wanted to take Dien to Canada and marry her. 'This was not approved by Dien's father, and Phil went back to Canada alone,' Ms. Fraaye wrote. 'After that, Dien had no more contact with Phil, but this could be because Dien's father intercepted Phil's mail.'
She added that, 'I have been searching for my father ever since.'
She and the Legeres have met several times, and they keep in regular contact. 'I don't see the resemblance, but other people who have met her say, 'My God, you can tell she's your sister,' ' Mr. Legere said.
There's another faded photograph in the scrapbooks that Jan Davis spotted. It's a shot of her father, William Briant, leaning against a tree next to another soldier identified as V.H. Perry of Toronto.
'I've not seen that one at all,' Ms. Davis said from her home in London, Ont. 'Seeing my dad's signature and photo was lovely.'
Mr. Briant grew up in Indian Head, Sask., a small town 70 kilometres east of Regina. On July 20, 1940, he joined the 17th Field Regiment of the Royal Canadian Artillery, Fifth Canadian Armoured Division. He was 17 years old.
After training in Canada and England, he was part of the Allied force that landed in Naples, Italy, on Nov. 8, 1943. His regiment moved through Italy, France, Belgium and the Netherlands, where they spent V-E Day after Germany's surrender on May 8, 1945. Mr. Briant was discharged in November, 1945, in Regina. He moved to Toronto and worked as a draftsman.
Ms. Davis said her father, who died in 2000, hardly spoke about the war. 'He didn't want to relive all the stuff that happened. They saw a lot of garbage, and then they never got any help afterwards. So I think it affected them quite a lot.'
She did come across a notebook where he'd written down some wartime memories. In one passage, he recalled heading off with another soldier named Bansecu to repair a radio wire that had been severed during a battle in Italy. As the two men fixed the wire, Mr. Briant noticed a German patrol heading their way. The pair hid in a thicket of trees. 'Bansecu whispered, 'What do we do?' ' Mr. Briant wrote. 'I said, 'Not a Goddam thing.' '
The Germans passed by without noticing them. 'I'll tell you I am sure glad that clump of trees grew where that break in the wire was,' he wrote. Then he added, 'I'm sorry to say Bansecu was killed later on in the war.'
The Dutch archives have heard from other Canadians wondering whether their relatives are among the hundreds of soldiers mentioned in the scrapbooks.
Business operations manager Anniek van Dijk-van Leeuwen said archivists are hoping to work with an Ottawa-based non-profit group called the Canadian Research and Mapping Association to develop a searchable database of the names.
'It's not going to end here,' she said. 'We really want to make a project out of this.'