[Wigger K. F. van der Horst]

Hi Hanno. In which part of the Netherlands are you from? Noticed you are a lot on this site. Well I try to do my best to identify the locations and SD&G-Highlanders in pictures.
About you question: no, these pictures are never published. The legal owner is Mr. T. Gault, the son of Capt. Ralph B. Gault. I got photo copies of the originals. I think that the pictures I have, are made by two local photographers in Hilversum. Mr. Anno Hofma and Mr. Niestadt. Anno had a photo shop at the Leeuwenstraat in Hilversum and made a lot of group pictures of the SD&G-Highlanders. Some of them did I get from several Canadians. The largest one is the 1st Battalion at the Maple Leaf Stadium (Het Gemeentelijk Sportpark aan de Soestdijkerstraatweg) in Hilversum: 450 Glens. The original picture is smaller than 5 inch, but the scan my sister made is realy fantastic, because all the faces are clear to identify . . .! I talked with some family-members of the Hofma family, but the photo archive is vanished . . . and that's a pitty, because is should be part of our history in our Archives or Musea, and ofcourse it's also of major importance for the Archives and Musea in Cornwall & Ottawa in Canada.
The second photographer, Mr. Nietstadt, was living at the Fabritiusstraat in Hilversum. He was also a filmmaker. He lived closeby the Fabritiusschool. At that time we lived opposite the Ruysdaelschool, which was part of the same building. The Glens came to Hilversum on May 19th 1945. Capt. Ralph Gault organized a tour "along the Battlefields, back to Juno Beach later that year. Mr. Niestadt heard about this event and asked if he could go which them as a photographer. This was possible, when Capt. Gault put him in a Canadian uniform . . . At Juno Beach, Mr. Niestadt traded the pictures he made for sigarettes . . . This story is from several Canadians & Dutch. I only put all the pieces together. I think the archive of Mr. Hofma must be somewhere in the Netherlands. A family member told me it was donated to "de Stichting 40/45", but that's not true. Also 'Het Nederlandse Instituut voor Militaire Historie" NIMH - and "het NIOD" in Amsterdam have not one photo or movie in their collection. However I will search further.
I talked to relatives of Mr. Niestadt, and they told me his archive of movies and photos are destroyed by fire for decades ago. Only the movies that were lent, were saved. a unique, tragic event . . .
I think that the pictures in Utrecht are made by Mr. Hofma. In the second place it could be Mr. Niestadt.