For Freedom Museum, Belgium

[Johan WILLAERT]

To be opened on November 1st, 2008, the Belgian For Freedom Museum honoring the Canadian Troops which liberated the coastal region of Belgium in late 1944, will house the vast collections of Freddy Jones (about 120 complete mannequins) and Patrick Tierssoone (30 vehicles) in a setting designed and built by Belgian decorator Pierre Verbreyt (of Normandy's Dead Man's Corner Museum fame).

Freddy Jones, the son of a British D-Day veteran, started collecting military artifacts in 1984 after he found his father's uniform in the attic. Living in Knokke, which was the last Belgian town to be liberated by the Canadian Forces after the landings on Walcheren and Hoofdplaat, he concentrated on items from Canadians directly involved with the liberation of his home town.
For the museum he has teamed up with Patrick Tierssoone who has been collecting WW2 vehicles since he was a teenager and their collections will be displayed in a former school building near Knokke.

Decoration is well underway with a couple of the main displays finished and it should all be open to the public next November on the 64th anniversary of the liberation of Knokke.

Website Museum (not yet in English):
http://www.forfreedommuseum.be