September 2025

Dear friends,

I hope that you all had a great summer break, even if it went by a little too quickly.

The rentrée is always a busy time for the branch as members take part in commemorations to mark the anniversary of the Liberation of Belgium by the Allies in 1944.

Alain Brogniez, our Facebook coordinator, recently posted some wonderful original Movietone news footage by cameraman Ken Gordon showing the wild scenes of jubilation in Brussels after the arrival of the Welsh Guards and Piron Brigade. It’s pandemonium. In one clip, a woman is trying to do the can-can and gets in the way of a chap burning an enemy flag (3:53). He isn’t happy and I daren’t lip-read the ensuing exchange!

The plummy-voiced commentator, Lionel Gamlin, confidently predicts that the “welcome to the troops is something that will never be forgotten”.

While the numbers who remember the heady events first-hand continues to dwindle, the liberation – and the sacrifices it took – have indeed never been forgotten in Belgium.

Throughout the year we receive emails from members and friends about ceremonies all over the country. We include them in our branch calendar. Servio-Belgium, the umbrella group for veterans and patriotic associations, also has a comprehensive list on its website.

***

I was saddened to learn of the death of our good friend and former branch member Lieutenant-Colonel Jean-Pierre Schellekens of the Belgian Air Force Reserve, who passed away in Brussels on 1 September.

Jean-Pierre, who would have been 90 in November, was President of the Belgian National Remembrance Committee (Comité National Belge du Souvenir/Het Belgisch Nationaal Herdenkingscomité) and a gentleman of the old school.

Very well-read and much travelled during his professional career, he worked tirelessly to honour the Fallen. I have been re-reading his 2021 book ‘Le devoir de mémoire: 1914-1945', which not only explains why remembrance still matters but also speaks volumes about the personal values he held so dear. 

Jean-Pierre had vivid childhood memories of the liberation of Antwerp, when he lived in the city. I was privileged that he recently shared them with me for our branch history (see section under September 1944 and obituary in the newsletter).

Our Vice-Chair, Jean-Pierre Pede, also recalls a remarkable project that his namesake spearheaded during the centenary of the First World War: to read out the names of fallen soldiers and civilians from all the nations involved in the conflict. Some 12,000 names were read at the first ceremony which lasted the entire day.

***

Jean-Pierre Schellekens was in my thoughts when I attended the annual RBL Tank Ceremony in Antwerp on 6 September. The service takes place on Jan Van Rijswijcklaan, the very street where he lived as a child and witnessed the arrival of the 11th British Armoured Division.

It was my first visit to the memorial and I must tip my hat to Chair Sid Wilkins and our friends in Antwerp for their superb organisation – and pulling power. VIPs at the event included the Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever, UK Ambassador Anne Sherriff, Mayor Els van Doesburg and the National President of the RBL, Vice Admiral Paul Bennett CB OBE. Several branch Chairs from Britain were also in attendance and we laid the RBL wreath together with Vice Admiral Bennett.

Especially memorable was an intervention by Baroness Regina Sluszny, who talked of her experience as a ‘hidden child’ in the war. A non-Jewish couple, Charel and Anna, risked their lives to take her in at their Hemiksem home for over three years. Her Orthodox parents and brothers meanwhile constantly moved from place to place. Amazingly, they avoided the round-ups. For Regina, who was six when she was reunited with her parents after the liberation, it meant adapting to a family she no longer knew and who spoke a different language. “It was very difficult, especially for my brothers,” she said.

We are so lucky to have such testimonies from the people who lived them.

The occupying forces in Belgium deported nearly 25,000 Jews, including 4,259 children, to extermination camps during the war.

***

During the summer I visited the Somme with Laura, my other half, and my French in-laws. I’ve been quite a few times over the years, but there’s always something new to see. We visited sites associated with the French including the remains of trenches and shell holes at Soyecourt Wood and the last resting place of Prince Louis Murat, a great-great nephew of Napoleon and great-great grandson of Marshal Ney. Murat was killed aged 19 near the village of Lihons and, unusually, his grave still stands exactly where he fell.

The undoubted highlight of our trip was a visit to the Australian National Memorial and Sir John Monash Centre at Villers-Bretonneux. Opened in 2018, the latter features 400 screens showing archive and re-created footage to illustrate soldiers’ lives on the frontline and the rear. There are no written panels – you listen to everything via an app on headphones (available at low cost if, like me, you forget to bring them). The café and shop are pretty good, too.

NB: our branch battlefields tour coordinator Steve Grant is planning a new programme. We’ll let you know more as soon as the dates are confirmed. Please support the tours if you can.

***

Many of us are fans of military museums but few, I suspect, have been to quite as many as Rainer Hiltermann, a Brussels branch member for more than 20 years. He visited his 98th military museum in Britain over the summer.

***

Would you be interested in joining the Brussels branch committee? We are currently looking to fill the roles of Treasurer and Poppy Appeal Coordinator. You don't need to be an expert as training will be given in both cases. If you’d like to know more, please contact Brussels.Chair@rbl.community.

***

There is much to look forward to in the coming weeks, not least the launch of the Poppy Appeal, which will be hosted in Brussels by the UK Ambassador on 23 October, and our Remembrance Sunday service at Heverlee on 9 November. The latter is always a special occasion so do please make a note of the date in your agenda. More details will follow.

Vietnam veteran and branch member Colonel Bill Bache, who runs the Brussels Battles & Books Club, is organising two unmissable talks at the Fraternelle des Agents Parachutistes with Marc Audrit, author of 'The Belgian RAF Pilot Who Defied the Gestapo' (10 October), and historian Dr Helen Fry, author of ‘The White Lady’ (14 October). See branch calendar for more details.

In the meantime, enjoy another fabulous newsletter, put together by Michael Whitburn and Scott Wilson.

Best wishes to you all,

Dennis

Brussels.Chair@rbl.community