This week sabine’s battlefield guide Saturday goes back to Beselare
How a priest loses all his books
Lodewijk De Wolf
On August 9, 1911, Lodewijk was appointed assistant priest of Beselare. Because of this appointment he could no longer go to Brussels to work on his book reviews in the Royal Library. Nevertheless, he adapted to the rural community, he was originally from Brugge. He immediately found a new hobby, namely: the regional history of Beselare. De Wolf had also written humorous texts in which he carefully denounced a few colleagues. They recognized themselves, could not laugh about it and complained to the diocese. For three years and two months he had been a pastor in Beselare and he had already made great progress with the history of the parish and the municipality, because his documentation already amounted to 1500 fiches.
On 19 October 1914 when Ypres was under fire, Beselare had to be evacuated and he had to leave behind his books, his files, his documentation, his notes, everything.
He fled first to Watou, to stay with his Aunt Pauline, became tutor to the children of Count de Brouchoven de Bergeyck, who lived in the castle ‘de Lovie’ in Proven. At the beginning of June 1918, he left for the diocese of Bayeux and was appointed pastor at Beaumais on 27 June 1918.
In the summer of 1916, a German soldier came to his father’s pharmacy Adolf De Wolf in Bruges, who told him that he had been encamped in Beselare, in a house where they had stoked up all the books during the past winter to warm themselves.
Lodewijk had made an inventory of all his books while he was still in Beauvais. In 1922, he submitted his inventory to the War Damage Commissioner, together with the necessary supporting documents, including: a packet of photographs of church silverware. But despite his written request and supporting documents, he did not receive a penny in compensation. When he personally went to the administrative offices to claim his right, he received the following answer:
‘Bah, Mijnheer de Pastere, boeken, daar kunnen wij niets voor geven, dat is liefhebberij’
sources : biekorf jaargang 46 en 54