Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth has decorated Mr Jaap van Genderen from The Netherlands as Honorary Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE).

The award is granted to Mr van Genderen for the dedicated attention he has, as one of the organisers of the annual Airborne Memorial Service at the CWGC war-cemetery in Oosterbeek, in memory of the Allied soldiers who died during operation MARKET GARDEN in September 1944.

The decoration was given to him at the British Embassy in Den Haag by the British ambassador his Excellency Mr Peter Wilson CMG.

Mister van Genderen (31-03-1966) has been a volunteer for 26 years at the Airborne Forces Security Fund, the organisation who annually plan the Memorial service at the Airborne cemetery. For the last 16 years, he has been co-organiser and does this in all modesty, without any pretension and selfless commitment, which is of significant importance for Arnhem veterans and relatives all over the world.

In 2018 Mr van Genderen was decorated as Ridder in de Orde van Oranje Nassau (Knight in the Order of Oranje Nassau) by King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands because of his voluntary work at the Airborne Memorial service.