This week Sabine’s battlefield guide Saturday :
Belgian refugees who ended up in England
I recently received a gift from a colleague guide and it made me decide to look deeper into the subject of how Belgian refugees ended up in the UK.
Holland was my first guess I needed access to some archives there. One of my recently met fellow guides who lives in Germany gave me a link to something else ww1 related, It gave me access to some of the Dutch archives.
As early as 9 August 1914, the War Refugee Committee was established in Britain. The sympathy for ‘poor little Belgium’ was massive, local Belgian refugee committees were set up . In total between a 1000 and 2500 local aid groups ensured that refugees had a roof over their heads, could work, received financial support, and received health care and education.
The support was not the same for everyone: A pink card or a blue card was handed out. To the better classes a pink card was given on arrival at Tilbury. Thanks to this pink card, they were welcomed in London with many honours. They enjoyed rich support and could live as luxuriously as in Belgium before the war. The others received a blue card, which allowed them to travel as far as London. In London, they were again subdivided: refugees belonged to the bourgeoisie or to the “rough and sometimes undesirable people”. This subdivision determined how each refugee would be accommodated. Yet the refugees were not immediately registered. This would not happen until late November 1914, when it became compulsory for every Belgian refugee from the age of 16. In exchange, they were given a Certificate of Registration, which they needed to look for work.
A few thousand Belgian workers left the Dutch camps behind and crossed the North Sea. They were mainly docker’s, railway workers, metalworkers and miners. By early 1916, around 30000 Belgian refugees had arrived in Britain. They mainly entered the war industry.
Every town or village in Holland kept lists of the Belgian refugees that arrived, all you need to research a person is in it. Majority can be accessed online.
From the ‘ rijksarchief Noord Brabant’ refugees of Uden
There was a government commission for transportation of Belgian refugees to England in Rotterdam
the British government was prepared to receive a considerable number of Belgian refugees of all classes, without, however, being able to guarantee work to each individual. Nevertheless, the committee thinks it should be notified that only workmen, who are engaged in one of the trades mentioned herewith, are likely to be able to find work in England at the ordinary English salaries.
it was desired that workmen proved their competence by certificates. The journey from the port of embarkation was at the British government’s expense. On arrival, interested parties will obtain accommodation and food free of charge until they have found work or are given shelter elsewhere. The interested parties must register with the local committees. the said committees provided the registration lists to the commission. upon receipt of these lists, the dates of registration were announced . It was definitely inadvisable to apply directly to the office, as they could not answer personal applications. Finally, the attention was drawn to persons wishing to go to England to the fact that those suffering from contagious diseases would not be allowed on board.
This was published by N.S. Reyntiens
Now the trades mentioned can be found in the second Image.
the commander of the refugee camp in Hontenisse, Baron Coliot d’Escury receives a message that the SS Walzoorden wil make extra trips on the 15th and 16thof December in the afternoon at 1.30 , by ferry, 250 refugees each time will travel from Walzoorden to Hansweert. the director of the provincial steamship service Wester Schelde asked if he could ensure that the refugees to be transported are present at the jetty in Walzoorden at half past one in order not to jeopardise the regular timetable.
The Vlake station chief writes the following :
A 180 refugees will leave Vlake for Flushing( Vlissingen) by train at 5.30 in the afternoon tomorrow Tuesday. Request for space if necessary to take measures
Send by Government commissioner refugee camp Wilhelm to Director of the Wester Scheldt provincial steamship service :
please take measures that in connection with extra boats on the 15th and 16thof December the refugees can be transported by tram from Hansweert to Vlake
sent 14/12.1914 by Government commissioner refugee camp Wilhelm to the mayor of ‘Vlissingen’ : request billeting until tomorrow morning for a Corporal and two soldiers led by 100 refugees destined for England. arrive today at Vlissingen 6.29 train. Likewise tomorrow for 120 refugees escorted
Send 15/12/1914 by Government commissioner refugee camp Wilhelm :
All expenses for transportation of refugees on 15 and 16 December from Walzoorden will be borne by English Government , request that this matter be arranged with Dr R. Jarrar hotel Zeeland Vlissingen.
In Birtley a village was created with the name Elizabethville. Two refugee newspapers were published in Britain: L’independance belge and De Stem uit België/L’echo de Belgique. The latter was founded by priest Floris Prims, who lived as a chaplain in London during the war. He wanted to maintain contacts between refugees and their relatives in Belgium and France. Prims called on compatriots to share information about family members. In 1915, Dr August Laporta published a list of addresses of refugees in Britain and France in’ De Stem’.
In Elizabeth village, they had their own shops, church and school, clubs even an orchestra; The “société amicale des sous officiers “ held a party on the 23rdof February 1917 in Birtley hall. the organizers of the party H.H. Dognez,Depape, Declercq,Cabers Cremers collected 27 pounds which was donated to the asylum for maimed soldiers in Porte -Villez par Verdon in France ( ‘de stem 08/03/1917)
The newspaper “L’indépendance belge’ that was printed in the UK ( in French as the name gives it away) it is written on the 11th of May 1917 that 6000 Belgian refugees life and work, majority it the ammunition factory ‘ national projectile factory, Major Snoeck and M Debauche from Charleroi
Some of the Belgian soldiers that ended up in Birtley, never returned home, at least 19 died there, 3 were repatriated back to Belgium and buried in a civilian cemetery. 3 were buried elsewhere , 13 in BIRTLEY (ELISABETHVILLE) ROMAN CATHOLIC CEMETERY .
One of the 19 that is in the wardeadregister in Jean Jack M’Bodo born in 1894 in Ouaka ( Belgian Congo at the time) He arrived in Belgium December 1911 where he worked as a waiter, by the end of 1912 moved to Paris and met a Russian lady named Wladislawa Olszewski. On New Year’s Day 1914, he returned to Brussels and became a cardboard salesman. That year, he married the seven-year-older Wladislawa, who worked as a dressmaker.
On the 10thof August 1914, less than a week after the German invasion, he volunteered to join the 5th Volunteer Regiment. Even before his unit reached the river Yser, he ended up in a hospital in Gent from the 24 to 27 September. strangely, he was demobilised on leaving the hospital. but not much later he enlisted again. During a German attack in the vicinity of St Joris (St George )on the Yser, on the 4th of November 1914, M’Bondo was hit on the right groin, leaving him with a bad leg. He was transferred to England and nursed at London’s Charing Cross Hospital. On the 2nd of January 1918, M’Bondo was placed at the disposal of the Détachement d’Artillerie de Birtley-Elisabethville to work in the munitions factory. As enough workers were not found quickly enough among the Belgian refugees, the Belgian government decided to send about a thousand, mostly wounded, soldiers to Birtley. There Jack died on 28 January 1918 around 11pm, of pneumonia, assisted by chaplain Petrus Verpoorten. Three days later, M’Bondo was buried in the Roman Catholic cemetery.
Sources :
Congo aan den Yser by Griet Brosens
Images : Cemetery pictures taken by Marc Hope
Thank you to Marc Hope for ‘ Who were the Birtley Belgians’
Thank you to Peter Capyo for sending me the link to the Dutch archives.