Headstone rededication for Lieutenant John Gordon Kavanagh, The Queen’s Own Rifles of Canada at Steenderen General Cemetery

A headstone rededication ceremony for Lieutenant John Gordon Kavanagh will take place in the Commonwealth War Graves Commission’s section of the Steenderen General Cemetery in Steenderen, The Netherlands on 14 Oct 2022 at 10.45am (local time).

Lt Kavanagh was killed in action aged 23 on April 5, 1945, during an advance towards Pipelure, Netherlands, but his remains were not identified at the point of recovery. After the war, he was commemorated on Panel 10 of the Groesbeek Memorial as having no known grave.

According to archival records, in April 1947 remains were recovered from a farmer’s field outside of Steenderen, Netherlands and buried in the Commonwealth War Graves Commission section of the Steenderen General Cemetery. As the identity of the remains was unknown, the grave was commemorated as an unknown soldier of the Second World War by the CWGC.

A 2017 research report suggested the remains of “a soldier of the 1939-1945 war” contained in a grave in the CWGC’s section of the Steenderen General Cemetery, Steenderen, Netherlands could be identified, and The Canadian Armed Forces confirmed it was Lieutenant John Gordon Kavanagh in November 2019.

The rededication ceremony was originally planned for the spring of 2020 but had to be postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.