Sapper Albert Sylvester Hoffman

During the Second World War, many thousands of men and women from all countries of the British Commonwealth and Empire lost their lives in trying to repel the German invasion of the Netherlands and Belgium in 1940, and in the ensuing struggle to liberate the occupied countries. Some 11,000 of these have their graves in Belgium and nearly 20,000 lie in the Netherlands. Of this number, there are over 1,000 who have no known grave.

The Groesbeek Memorial, which stands in Groesbeek Canadian War Cemetery, about 10 kilometres south-east of the Dutch town of Nijmegen, commemorates by name these members of the Commonwealth land forces who died during the campaign in North-West Europe between the time of crossing the Seine at the end of August 1944, and the end of the war in Europe.

The Groesbeek Memorial consists of twin colonnaded buildings which face each other across the turfed forecourt of the Groesbeek Canadian War Cemetery, between the entrance and the Stone of Remembrance. The names of the men commemorated are inscribed in panels of Portland stone built into the rear walls, and within each building are inscribed the words:

The walls bear the names of the soldiers
Of the British Commonwealth and Empire
Who fell in the advance from the river seine
Through the low countries and into Germany
But to whom the fortune of war denied
A known and honoured grave.
30TH AUGUST 1944 - 5TH MAY 1945