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Canadian Virtual War Memorial

John Blake Higginson

In memory of:

Flight Sergeant John Blake Higginson

September 11, 1942

Military Service


Service Number:

R/141503

Age:

23

Force:

Air Force

Unit:

Royal Canadian Air Force

Additional Information


Son of John Bright Higginson and Frances Ann Higginson, of Westmount, Montreal, Province of Quebec, Canada.

Commemorated on Page 81 of the Second World War Book of Remembrance. Request a copy of this page. Download high resolution copy of this page.

Burial Information


Cemetery:
Grave Reference:

2. B. 10.

Location:

Rheinberg is 24 kilometres north of Krefeld and 13 kilometres south of Wesel, in the locality of Kamp Lintfort, Nordrhein-Westfal. The cemetery is 3 kilometres south of the centre of the town of Rheinberg on the road to Kamp Lintfort. From the motorway 57, turn off at Rheinberg and at the T junction follow the 510 in the direction Kamp Lintfort. The cemetery is a short way along this road on the right.

The site of Rheinberg War Cemetery was chosen in April 1946 by the Army Graves Service for the assembly of Commonwealth graves recovered from numerous German cemeteries in the area. The majority of those now buried in the cemetery were airmen, whose graves were brought in from Dusseldorf, Krefeld, Munchen-Gladbach, Essen, Aachen and Dortmund; 450 graves were from Cologne alone. The men of the other fighting services buried here mostly lost their lives during the battle of the Rhineland, or in the advance from the Rhine to the Elbe.

There are now 3,326 Commonwealth servicemen of the Second World War buried or commemorated at Rheinberg War Cemetery. 156 of the burials are unidentified. There are also nine war graves of other nationalities, most of them Polish.

Information courtesy of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

Digital Collection

Send us your images

  • Document– Family of F/Sgt Higginson
  • Document– RCAF notification of death.  The International Red Cross had informed them that his body was interred in the POW section of a municipal cemetery near Dusseldorf.
  • Document– German record
  • Letter– Letter to mother from Group Captain on 20 September 1942
  • Attestation paper– Results of interview upon enlistment in RCAF.   Higginson had enlisted in the Army in 1941 and  trained with the Royal Canadian Corps of Signals at Barriefield, Ont.
  • Grave marker– Wooden cross on Sgt. Higginson's grave at Rheinberg War Cemetery.
  • Grave marker– Photo of permanent grave marker at Rheinberg War Cemetery,  
courtesy of Fred from the Netherlands on Find a Grave.
  • Newspaper clipping– Photograph of F/Sgt. Higginson and his three brothers who served during WWII.
  • Memorial– Father J P Lardie's comments as inscribed on the Bomber Command Memorial Wall in Nanton, AB … photo courtesy of Marg Liessens
  • Memorial– Flight Sergeant John Blake Higginson is also commemorated on the Bomber Command Memorial Wall in Nanton, AB … photo courtesy of Marg Liessens
  • Memorial– Flight Sergeant John Blake Higginson is also commemorated on the Bomber Command Memorial Wall in Nanton, AB … photo courtesy of Marg Liessens
  • Newspaper Clipping– Submitted for the project, Operation: Picture Me

Learn more about the Canadian Virtual War Memorial

To learn more please visit our help page. If you have questions or comments regarding the information contained in this registry, email or call us. For inquiries regarding the names and information found in the RCMP Honour Roll, please email the RCMP.

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