Belgian Independence Day 1915
The 21 July 1915 was the 85th anniversary of Belgian independence which was celebrated in the town with a mass at St. Thomas’ and Belgian flags were flown on many of the buildings of the town including the Town Hall.
A reception was held at Stanhope Hall where Leon Herssens gave a report of the Belgian’s time in Deal and Walmer. He also gave a speech in French that ended with a short address which was translated into English and I have found a copy of that at the Kent Archives which reads …..
In the name of all the Belgians in Deal and Walmer, assembled today with their English friends to celebrate, in exile, the anniversary of their national Independence, so contemptuously trampled upon by the Germans in 1914.
Thank with all their hearts the inhabitants of this country of refuge England- and especially all the inhabitants of Deal and Walmer for their generous, devoted and continued Hospitality.
There were at least two pages of signatures of both the Deal & Walmer and the Belgian committees but only one page survives.
Sadly the original copy of the speech is missing but it is in full, in French in the Booklet ‘1914-1915 Our Stay in Deal & Walmer’ and in the local newspaper of the time.
One sentence does stand out “ We await with patience the hour of our deliverance”. They waited another three years for the war to end and for some four years to return home.
Very little is recorded about the Refugees after 1915 this is probably due to the fact that most of those who originally came had moved on and those who stayed were able to support themselves and since Mrs Marke Wood was now paying the rents of those refugees in need the financial burden on the committees was greatly reduced.
Returning to Belgium
From early on in the war the refugee committees, all over the country, had been setting funds aside to assist with the return of the refugees once the war was over. However, there are no surviving records for the refugees return home from Deal and Walmer.
Leon Herssens did return to Alost taking up his position as a solicitor at the same firm that he and his father-in-law had worked at before the war. He remained there until his death on the 13 January 1931.
I don’t know what reception any of our refugees received on their return home. Some, though, were not looked upon favourably by those that had stayed and suffered under the occupation not just with the heavy taxation but also the forced labour, starvation, deportation and the harsh treatment we now associate with WW2.
And Today
There is very little left to mark the refugees time here in Britain, except maybe a plaque in some towns. Folkestone has ‘The Landing of the Belgian Refugees’ painting and on The Embankment in London, there is a monument.
Here in Deal there are only the newspaper archives and the booklet.
