Memorials St. Idesbaldus Church

Two memorial plaques hang next to the portal of the St. Idesbaldus Church.
The top one is in memory of the political prisoners who died during the Second World War.
1940 - 1945
Died to our political prisoners for the homeland

Major DHOOGHE François
CHRISTIAEN Henri
DEMAN Marcel "

These three local resisters were detained in a concentration camp after being denounced by the German occupier. They did not return.
Every year at the beginning of September they are commemorated together with the Canadian soldier Charles Richards who died.

Next to the portal of St. Idesbaldus Church are two plaques, at the bottom in memory of Charles Richards.

Charles Richards was a Canadian soldier who died in the liberation of the West Coast on September 9, 1944. Together with his brother he was a volunteer in the Canadian Liberation Corps, barely 8 weeks on European soil. In De Panne he came into confrontation with the German rearguard, which withdrew to Dunkirk. In the Zeelaan, badly wounded by shrapnel, he was rushed to the monastery in St. Idesbald, where he died in the arms of a nun.
The people of the village were deeply moved and mourned the death of that young man, just under 27 years old, fallen in the prime of his life, killed to help free our people from the yoke of war.
His name is a household name in St. Idesbald, it is commemorated every year at the beginning of September.

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