Swarthoffs laid a wreath on the grave of Leslie Frank Bull.

Image Credit: SUBMITTED: Berry Swarthoff

Penticton resident Henry Shaw last saw his cousin, Leslie Frank Bull, when he was four years old.

Not long afterwards Bull was killed in battle while fighting in Belgium. It was 1944 and he was 19 years old.

Now, almost 80 years later, Dutch couple Berry and Yvonne Swarthoff are connecting relatives and sharing the story.

The Swarthoffs run Holland's only Canadian restaurant and have for decades hosted veterans and used the restaurant as the clubhouse of the Royal Canadian Legion.

Several years ago they began adopting the graves of fallen soldiers through the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

When they adopted the grave of Leslie Frank Bull all they knew was his parents' names and that he was born in Penticton in 1924 and set sail to Europe in July 1944. Several months later he was killed in action in Belgium.

Bull is now buried at the Canadian War Cemetery in Adegem, Belgium.

The Swarthoffs then turned to social media to see if they could track down Bull's family in Penticton.

"It was like an avalanche," Berry said. "It was amazing, everybody tried."

Normally when Berry puts out information on a website looking for family members it takes a while.

But not in Penticton.

Berry said there were so many people in Penticton actively searching for existing family members it was incredible.

Through their social media contacts, they managed to track down Bull's nephew and cousin.

The Swarthoffs also tracked down the war diary of the Winnipeg Rifles which contains Bull's story.

"They were in a field in combat and they had to move on and his sergeant said to him OK let's move forward, he could see Leslie was a little bit scared and he said OK what I'll do is... I'll move on and if it's safe I'll call you over," Berry said. "The sergeant moved on and then a German 88 shell landed behind the sergeant and he saw that Leslie was hit, and he... saw Leslie flying four or five feet in the air and knew he was dead."

Shaw said it's great what the Swarthoffs are doing.

"I'd often wondered where his grave was," Shaw said.

The 85-year-old said while he was well aware his cousin had been killed during the war, it wasn't often talked about.

"A lot of people that came back would not talk about it," he said. "He was mentioned occasionally but it was too hard on his parents, so they didn't bring that up."

Shaw said veterans returning from Europe often didn't talk about the war.

"It was not something they were willing to talk about," he said.

Berry said that his parents always told him not to forget, pointing out there are 7,000 foreign soldiers buried in Holland.

"We still have our freedom, that's what we owe to our liberators and most of the Netherlands was liberated by the Canadians," he said. "We can't forget this."

A couple of weeks ago the Swarthoffs travelled to Adegem in Belgium and laid a wreath on the grave of the 19-year-old Penticton soldier.

Leslie Frank Bull

Image Credit: SUBMITTED: Berry Swarthoff

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