In October 2012, Wallace Watson’s niece, London-based Diana Bentley, visited Follega and Lemmer, and met Douwe Drijver and Alexander Tuinhout of the Stichting Missing Airmen Memorial Foundation of North Holland. Douwe and Alexander showed Diana the site where Avro Lancaster JA853 MG-L crashed in Follega. They also visited the Old General Cemetery at Lemmer, where five of the crew are buried and several monuments to aircrews who’d lost their lives in the area.

Diana’s visit was inspired by the work of Dave Cheetham, the Archivist of the 7 Squadron Association, and the nephew of Jimmy Hurst, the crew’s Mid Upper Gunner. In 1994, Dave visited Lemmer and Follega and met Marten Bangma on the Bangma farm, where the plane crashed. It was Dave’s research that provided the information on the crash for Peter Hinchliffe’s biography of Heinz Schnauffer, the German pilot who shot down JA853, which he shared with Diana when they became friends in the 7 Squadron Association. Diana’s visit prompted the idea of a monument for the crew, and the small park in Lemmer, opposite the Bangma farm where JA853 crashed, seemed to be the perfect place for it.

Later, Diana met Melvin Chambers, who lives in the Netherlands and is involved in preserving the memory of Bomber Command airmen, and especially, Les Knight, DSO, an Australian pilot who had participated in the Dambusters raid, and who later died when his plane crashed near Melvin’s hometown of Den Ham. Diana and Melvin worked on a monument project for seven years. Invaluable help with this was provided in the last few months by Harm Vollema, a retired businessman in Lemmer. On Saturday, the 28th June, 2025, a stone monument for the crew was finally unveiled in the Follega park.

This was a wonderful day of celebrations with Papageno House in Lemmer serving as the base for guests. A wreath-laying service was held at the Old General Cemetery in Lemmer, followed by the unveiling of the monument in the Follega park, and later a reception at Papageno House. Many guests joined the tribute to the crew including the Australian Ambassador from the Netherlands,  the King's Deputy Commissioner for Friesland, the Deputy Major for De Fryske Marren, 14 members of 7 Squadron from England, local Dutch veterans, a representative of the Royal Netherlands Air Force, the Chairman of the 7 Squadron Association, and the Managing Director of the IJB Group of Lemmer who provided the foundations for the monument. As well as Wal’s niece Diana, eight members of the family of the Flight Engineer, Raymond Hedges came from England, including his daughter, Pearl. Two members of the family of William Waterman, the Navigator, came from Western Australia.

The many local friends and neighbours there included Jannette Ozinga, who lives opposite the park and who was a wonderful support to Diana, Melvin and Harm. Some had a personal connection to the crash  - including the members of the Bagma family. Prayers and speeches and poems were read in the services, and Crescendo - a local orchestra, provided beautiful music.  A dramatic painting of JA853 by Malcolm Reeves, Chairman of the 7 Squadron Association, was presented to the IJB Group at the afternoon reception. In the evening, family and friends met for dinner.

It’s hoped that the monument in the Follega park will be a place for rest and reflection for years to come and a place to remember the crew of JA853, who, like so many others, gave their lives in the epic struggle for freedom in Europe.