Lieutenant-Colonel (Retd) Eugène Colson, M.S.M.,
Trompetvogelstraat, Belgium
Meritorious Service Medal (civil division)
A former commander of the Belgian Resistance during the Second World War, Lieutenant-Colonel Colson worked with Canadians to ensure that Antwerp Harbour and the banks of the Scheldt River were protected from enemy occupation. The Canadian contribution to the liberation of Belgium is kept alive through his annual commemoration at the war memorial in Antwerp. A Belgian resident, he organized, in 1989, a return to Antwerp for a group of Canadian veterans and their wives for the forty-fifth anniversary of the city's liberation. Although he is more than eighty years old, he is currently planning another such trip for the 50th anniversary.