Edward Patrick KERSTIN

Permission given for upload of the photograph by S Kerstin, Ancestry Family Trees, thank you very much.

KERSTIN Edward Patrick. Commonwealth War Graves Commission died 16th November 1981 aged 54. His life was taken by an employed local person at work At rest in Stonefall Cemetery, Harrogate, Yorkshire.
Edward Patrick Kerstin is my father. He served in the Royal Artillery during WWII. He was assigned to a War Graves Unit and was responsible for burying and sometimes re-burying fallen comrades. At the end of the War he transferred to the CWGC and stayed in France looking after the cemeteries, in particular in the Somme area and around Vimy. I was born and brought up at the Ulster Tower in Thiepval. Paddy, as he was known, dedicated his life to looking after his fallen comrades. He was posted to Tunisia on promotion and was responsible for North Africa. He was murdered by one of his locally employed personnel at work. CWGC paid my family the greatest honour by allowing him to be buried at Harrogate. My sister and brother lived in Yorkshire at the time. I was serving in the Army. The gravestone is slightly different in that it has cut corners to represent a civilian, and is set separate from Military graves. We always felt this was what he wanted -to still be the Head Gardener looking after his fallen comrades. The grave is on a 99 year lease.