On the leafy outskirts of Venray in the Netherlands, you will find the Commonwealth Military Cemetery of Honour, officially named ‘CWGC Venray War Cemetery’, overseen by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
The cemetery contains the war graves of 692 soldiers and one civilian; a war correspondent. They died between September 1944 and June 1945.
Hay Mulders lives near the cemetery in a small town of about 2000 inhabitants called America, in the area Limburg. He contacted birkenhead.news because there is a grave at the cemetery for Pte. William Carden 4042197 of Birkenhead, and he is trying to trace the soldier’s family and find out more about him.
Pte. William Carden served in the 1st Battalion, The Herefordshire Regiment, King’s Shropshire Light Infantry and was killed in action, aged 21, on 31 October 1944 at Griendtsveen. His remains were interred in grave number VI. G. 4.
Hay told us, “During World War II, there was a lot of fighting here and we were freed by English soldiers on 23/24 November 1944. Some of these English soldiers died in our neighbourhood.”
Hay is a member of a local history group and they have adopted Pte. Carden’s grave and are keen to find out more about him including photographs of him and even to trace his living relatives.
It is known that Pte. Carden was married to Winifred Joyce Carden and was the son of Thomas and Edith, from a newspaper clipping:
There is a Facebook group 
dedicated to finding out the stories behind the names on the war graves at Venray and you can help with providing information on Pte. Carden.
Additionally, the Facebook group ‘Miss Marples‘ are a team of volunteers that help adoptees of WWII graves find living relatives so they can discover a background to the fallen soldier and hopefully a photograph.
Alternatively, if you have any information that you think may be of interest you can email us at news@birkenhead.news
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