Award Military Cross Lt. Robert Vekemans, Belgian Forces with 3 Royal Tank Regiment, 29th Armoured Brigade, 11th Armoured Division WO 373/153/21 Vekemans pictured receiving his Military Cross from Montgomery on 10th March 1945 at an investiture at Grande Place, Brussels IWM B15504
That's pretty fantastic. I wonder what his circumstances were before he helped 3RTR? I assume from his local knowledge that he had been in the area for some time - working as part of a Belgian resistance group, maybe?
Vekemans was a civil engineer who had served in the Belgian army in 1939-40. He wasn't part of any resistance group and worked alone. He was a great bloke and a lifelong friend of my father, Major John Dunlop who was the commander of C Squadron, 3RTR, the man Vekeman's needed to convince to divert the British advance via Boom rather than continue down the main road to Antwerp.