Belgian refugees of the Great War

The Belgian refugees
of the Great War

The occupation of Belgium by Germany during the First World War of 1914-18 resulted in a flood of refugees from their homeland into this country. There was great public sympathy for them among the British people and every town and city was asked to help find them somewhere to live.

A Central Committee was set up by the government in London to co-ordinate offers of accommodation and in November 1914, a letter was sent to the Vicar of Bourne, the Rev Harry Cotton Smith, seeking his help and he called a meeting of the Relief Committee set up by Bourne Urban District Council to handle wartime emergencies. It was held at the council offices in North Street on Monday 2nd November under the chairmanship of Councillor Arthur Wall.

The vicar told the meeting about the request but he pointed out that since receiving the letter requesting assistance, Bourne had also been asked to organise a military hospital to take wounded soldiers from the front line and these preparations were now underway. There was likely to be a charge on local funds for this purpose, he said, and several people he had spoken to had questioned the advisability of accepting refugees until they had ascertained the liability of the town to the reception of the military personnel because a government grant was available for this purpose only and did not extend to assistance for refugees.

It was suggested that accommodation for a large family could be provided at the hospital for infectious disease in Manor Lane for which the urban council paid a retaining fee for use when required but formal permission would have to be obtained from Bourne Rural District Council which was responsible for its administration. There was some discussion on this but the meeting then decided that it would be an unsuitable place for a refugee family and other accommodation should be found. The meeting also agreed to raise funds locally to cover the weekly sum necessary for the maintenance of the family.

Fund raising was also arranged and the headmistress of the Council School (Girls) in Bourne, Miss Clara Ward, collected 100 second hand garments that had been brought in by her pupils and after being repaired where necessary by the older girls, they were parceled up and sent to the Central Committee in London for distribution among the refugees.

The first family sent to Bourne arrived in October 1914 and were housed at a cottage on a farm in Bourne North Fen. It consisted of a woman and her seven children, the youngest only seven months old, accompanied by her father. They said that their home in Belgium had been burned by the advancing Germans. The family stayed only a few weeks before returning to London and were housed elsewhere by the Central Committee.

The next refugees, a family of four, arrived on Thursday 26th November 1914 after the Congregational Church [now the United Reformed Church] undertook to house them in one of the cottages at the west end of the schoolroom, although they have since been demolished. The offer was put to the Central Committee which approved the idea provided church members contributed £1 a week towards their keep and this was agreed.

Until then, the new arrivals, a man and his wife and two children, had been staying at a refugee hostel in Earl's Court, London. They were the Van Den Burgh family from Malines, a cathedral city near Antwerp, a husband and wife with a son, Henry, and a daughter, Marie, and they remained in Bourne for 2½ years when they returned to London.

The Van Den Burgh family

During their stay, they had been looked after by the Congregational Church and they left on their own initiative in May 1917 hoping to meet with fellow Belgians and secure work in the capital.

After the war, they returned to Belgium but one of them, daughter Marie, came back to Bourne. She had struck up a romantic attachment with a local lad, Harold Luesby, who was serving with the Royal Navy and they had met while he was home on leave. Marie lodged at first with Russell Hamling, a seedsman and greengrocer, and his family at their home in North Street, until the couple were married at the Abbey Church. Harold was then working as a builder and decorator and they went to live in Woodview and then in 1928 moved to a new home in Recreation Road. They had three children, a son, Graham, and two daughters, Jean and Pat. But Harold died of blood poisoning at the early age of 36 and Marie subsequently re-married to Dennis Martin but she too died in 1953 from cancer at the age of 52.

All three children from the first marriage are still alive, Graham Luesby, now aged 74, a former painter and decorator, who lives in retirement in Gladstone Street, Bourne, and his sisters, Mrs Jean Parrish and Mrs Pat Broxholme. Graham remembers his Belgian relatives with affection because he spent many happy holidays with them before foreign travel had become so popular, staying for two weeks every year at Malines and elsewhere. A link with the Belgian refugees therefore remains alive in Bourne.

A similar situation occurred in Britain when Belgium was invaded by Germany during the Second World War of 1939-45, creating a flood of refugees seeking asylum and by 1941 there were 23,000 Belgian civilians living in this country, constituting the largest allied colony in the United Kingdom, although none came to Bourne. Most of them had reached England in May-June 1940 and the majority found employment as a result of assistance from the Ministry of Labour.

REVISED SEPTEMBER 2007

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