Dutch woman's bid to trace family of WWII Paisley solider
A Dutch woman who has been tending to the grave of a Paisley soldier who died in World War II is appealing for help to find his family.
Nathalie te Wilt, who lives in the Netherlands, has adopted the war grave of former RAF Sergeant Andrew Wilson alongside Pilot Sergeant John McCalla Tait, and Second Pilot James Archibald Wilson.
The three men sadly died on March 26, 1943, after their Halifax MKII was shot down near Zelhem, Holland, during World War Two.
The three men are buried at a cemetery in Doetinchem, Gelderland.
Nathalie adopted the graves of the three men back in March as a display of gratitude and remembrance, while vowing to do her best to find their families.
She told the Paisley Daily Express: 'I take care of the graves and bring roses for them. I also light candles.
'They deserve love and attention for everything they've done for us, for our ancestors and for the generations who will come after us.'
The 31-year-old now wants to trace the family of Sgt Andrew Wilson.
Wilson, who was just 26-years-old when he died, lived at both 38 Lady Lane and 76 George Street in Paisley. He was born on July 19, 1916, to his parents Andrew, who was born in Saltcoats, North Ayrshire, in 1886 and Catherine Wilson, who was also born in Paisley in 1888.
Andrew had one brother, Hugh McKendrick Wilson who was born in Paisley in 1920.
Sgt Wilson was also married and he and his wife had one son called Brian A Wilson who went on to become a carpenter.
Nathalie, who attributes her passion for WW2 to her grandfather, is determined to find the family of Sgt Wilson stating: 'My grandad was in the war, he had to do forced labour. He taught his grandchildren to always have respect for those who fought for our freedom.
'I wanted to do something for these brave boys because they never had an official military tribute after their death, and went to visit them.
'It is important we remember these boys who sacrificed themselves and fought so hard for the freedoms we have now. I am not going to give up until Andrew is reunited with his family.'
Nathalie has helped track down the family of another of the pilots, John McCalla Tait, getting in contact with relatives in Wicklow, Ireland, earlier this year.
Now, along with the help of friend Brenda Kelly, a former member of the Women's Royal Air Force, she hopes to do the same for the Paisley native.
Nathalie added: 'I really hope and pray with love, for brave Sgt Andrew Wilson that through this article, people who knew his family or who are related to him in some way can help us find any of his living relatives.
'We just want to give everyone some closure.
'I try to look and research on bomber command pages on Facebook, family heritage sites, ancestry or on the internet. With the brave RAF soldiers from the UK, it is a little harder to find information, through the privacy rules in the UK.'
Brenda also opened up on her involvement in the process. She added: 'I have been helping Nathalie for two years after she adopted six graves.
'So far, we have found approximately 100 living relatives and photographs of brave servicemen. Their stories are all different, ie young rear gunners aged 19, husbands who never got to meet their first born, plus lots of brave Scotsmen from Inverness, Arbroath, Cupar, Glasgow and Edinburgh, among other places.'
And Nathalie's dedication has been praised by a Renfrewshire veterans charity. Wing Commander Ian Cumming, chief executive of Erskine Veterans Charity, said: 'At Erskine, we are continually moved by the extraordinary kindness of people like Nathalie te Wilt, whose dedication to honouring our fallen servicemen reflects a profound respect for their sacrifice.
'Sgt Andrew Wilson, like so many brave airmen of his generation, gave his life in the service of others, and it is deeply humbling to know that — more than 80 years later — his memory is being so lovingly preserved.
'Nathalie's efforts to trace his family and share his story are a powerful reminder that remembrance knows no borders, and that the legacy of these young heroes lives on through the compassion of those who refuse to forget.'
Erskine provides nursing, residential and dementia care homes for veterans and their families.
It also assists younger veterans who need help to begin the next chapter of their lives, offering social, recreation and training facilities at its activity centres in Bishopton and Forres.
The veterans village in Bishopton has 44 cottages for veterans and their families as well as five assisted living apartments and 23 transitional supported accommodation apartments - supporting veterans of all ages.
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a day ago
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"It's hard to verify scientifically - you'd need genetic testing, which is exhausting and Ministry of Health and Welfare (MOHW) told the BBC that it had gathered genetic data between 2020 and 2024 and would continue further studies until 2029. It would "consider expanding the definition of victims" to second- and- third-generation survivors only "if the results are statistically significant", it said. The Korean toll Of the 140,000 Koreans in Hiroshima at the time of the bombing, many were from by mountains with little farmland, it was a difficult place to live. Crops were seized by the Japanese occupiers, droughts ravaged the land, and thousands of people left the rural country for Japan during the war. Some were forcibly conscripted; others were lured by the promise that "you could eat three meals a day and send your kids to school."But in Japan, Koreans were second-class citizens – often given the hardest, dirtiest and most dangerous jobs. Mr Shim says his father worked in a munitions factory as a forced labourer, while his mother hammered nails into wooden ammunition the aftermath of the bomb, this distribution of labour translated into dangerous and often fatal work for Koreans in Hiroshima. "Korean workers had to clean up the dead," Mr Shim, who is the director of the Hapcheon branch of the Korean Atomic Bomb Victims Association, tells BBC Korean. "At first they used stretchers, but there were too many bodies. Eventually, they used dustpans to gather corpses and burned them in schoolyards.""It was mostly Koreans who did this. Most of the post-war clean-up and munitions work was done by us."According to a study by the Gyeonggi Welfare Foundation, some survivors were forced to clear rubble and recover bodies. While Japanese evacuees fled to relatives, Koreans without local ties remained in the city, exposed to the radioactive fallout – and with limited access to medical care.A combination of these conditions - poor treatment, hazardous work and structural discrimination - all contributed to a disproportionately high death toll among to the Korean Atomic Bomb Victims Association, the Korean fatality rate was 57.1%, compared to the overall rate of about 33.7%.About 70,000 Koreans were exposed to the bomb. By year's end, some 40,000 had died. Outcasts at home After the bombings, which led to Japan's surrender and Korea's subsequent liberation, about 23,000 Korean survivors returned home. But they were not welcomed. Branded as disfigured or cursed, they faced prejudice even in their homeland."Hapcheon already had a leper colony," Mr Shim explains. "And because of that image, people thought the bomb survivors had skin diseases too."Such stigma made survivors stay silent about their plight, he adds, suggesting that "survival came before pride".Ms Lee says she saw this "with her own eyes"."People who were badly burned or extremely poor were treated terribly," she recalls. "In our village, some people had their backs and faces so badly scarred that only their eyes were visible. They were rejected from marriage and shunned."With stigma came poverty, and hardship. Then came illnesses with no clear cause: skin diseases, heart conditions, kidney failure, cancer. The symptoms were everywhere - but no-one could explain time, the focus shifted to the second and third generations. Han Jeong-sun, a second-generation survivor, suffers from avascular necrosis in her hips, and can't walk without dragging herself. Her first son was born with cerebral palsy."My son has never walked a single step in his life," she says. "And my in-laws treated me horribly. They said, 'You gave birth to a crippled child and you're crippled too—are you here to ruin our family?'"That time was absolute hell."For decades, not even the Korean government took active interest in its own victims, as a war with the North and economic struggles were treated as higher wasn't until 2019 - more than 70 years after the bombing - that MOHW released its first fact-finding report. That survey was mostly based on response to BBC inquiries, the ministry explained that prior to 2019, "There was no legal basis for funding or official investigations".But two separate studies had found that second-generation victims were more vulnerable to illness. One, from 2005, showed that second-generation victims were far more likely than the general population to suffer depression, heart disease and anaemia, while another from 2013 found their disability registration rate was nearly double the national this backdrop, Ms Han is incredulous that authorities keep asking for proof to recognise her and her son as victims of Hiroshima."My illness is the proof. My son's disability is the proof. This pain passes down generations, and it's visible," she says. "But they won't recognise it. So what are we supposed to do - just die without ever being acknowledged?" Peace without apology It was only last month, on July 12, that Hiroshima officials visited Hapcheon for the first time to lay flowers at a memorial. While former PM Hatoyama Yukio and other private figures had come before, this was the first official visit by current Japanese officials."Now in 2025 Japan talks about peace. But peace without apology is meaningless," says Junko Ichiba, a long-time Japanese peace activist who has spent most of her life advocating for Korean Hiroshima points out, the visiting officials gave no mention or apology for how Japan treated Korean people before and during World War Two. Although multiple former Japanese leaders have offered their apologies and remorse, many South Koreans regard these sentiments as insincere or insufficient without formal Ichiba notes that Japanese textbooks still omit the history of Korea's colonial past - as well as its atomic bomb victims – saying that "this invisibility only deepens the injustice".This adds to what many view as a broader lack of accountability for Japan's colonial Jeong-gu, director of the Red Cross's support division, said, "These issues... must be addressed while survivors are still alive. For the second and third generations, we must gather evidence and testimonies before it's too late."For survivors like Mr Shim it's not just about being compensated – it's about being acknowledged."Memory matters more than compensation," he says. "Our bodies remember what we went through… If we forget, it'll happen again. And someday, there'll be no one left to tell the story."
