On Monday, May 5, it will be 80 years since Canadian military personnel liberated the Netherlands from Nazi occupation. The RCMP Pipes, Drums and Dancers are traveling to The Netherlands to perform and commemorate the occasion. Bagpiper Gilbert Young of Vankleek Hill is among the members of the organization participating in the tour. Young also participated in the 75th anniversary tour in 2020.
While in The Netherlands, the pipes, drums, and dancers will promote the RCMP to the people of the Netherlands, past and present, and to support the people of the Netherlands in conducting their National Remembrance and Liberation Day events. While in the Netherlands, the Band and its dancers will also participate in the 2025 United Pipers for Peace events in and around Apeldoorn.
Remembrance Day in the Netherlands is marked every year on May 4 and May 5 Liberation Day. The country decided to celebrate every five-years of the anniversary as a “Crown Year” with added emphasis to its national and local celebrations. Liberation Day is a public holiday in the Netherlands and was instituted to mark their liberation by Canadian, British, Polish, American, Belgian, Dutch and Czechoslovak forces. On May 5 1945, at Hotel de Wereld in Wageningen, 1 Canadian Corps Commander Lieutenant-General Charles Foulks and Oberfehlshaber Niederlande Commander-in-Chief Generaloberst Johannes Blaskowitz (German General Officer) reached an agreement on the capitulation of all German forces in the Netherlands.
The RCMP Pipes. Drums and Dancers visit to the Netherlands is timed to be able to represent Canada and contribute to both these important events.
In 1939, the Canadian Government authorized the RCMP to provide a full company of officers and men (116) enlisting as military police to form No. 1 Provost Company (Royal Canadian Mounted Police). This was the first Military Police group in the Canadian Army of WW2, arriving in England in December 1939. Eventually the Canadian Provost Corps grew to several companies to support Army operations, but No 1 Provost Company remained RCMP and they were assigned to the 1st Division primarily taking part in the Italian campaign, where several were killed in action.
Through the war, the RCMP members were transferred across the Canadian Provost Corps providing leadership and experience to replacements. In February 1945, the No 1 Provost Company (RCMP) were transferred to northwest Europe where they deployed in the Netherlands attached to the 1st Canadian Division through operations until the end of the war. It should be noted that following the war, their service resulted in the distinctive badge of the Canadian Provost Corps being emblazoned on the RCMP Guidon, as well as the corps operational honour of Second World War 1939-1945 being emblazoned as well.
During this current tour in the Netherlands, the RCMP Pipes, Drums, and Dancers will be participating in the United Pipers for Peace (UPFP) Apeldoorn. This initiative is timed to coincide with remembrance and liberation activities in the Netherlands and will involve many bands from the Netherlands, Canada, Spain, France, Germany, Belgium, England, Scotland and will be conducted on May 2 and 3 and feature a number of events.
The band and dancers are leaving Canada for the Netherlands on April 27 and are to return on May 9.
The RCMP Pipes, Drums, and Dancer’s participation in the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Netherlands will be livestreamed and remain for viewers to watch at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZJ8dwVEJ7g.
