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Over a quarter of a million Belgians fled to Britain during the First World War. Simon Fowler and Keith Gregson follow the fortunes of these refugees, many of whom ended up manufacturing munitions
W
hile Britain had received refugees from past continental conflicts, the country had seen nothing on the scale of arrivals from Belgium as thousands fled the invading German forces when war began in August 1914. Over the following two months nearly 200,000 desperate men women and children sailed into ports up and
down the East coast. The first arrivals were chiefly people with enough money to pay their way, at least for a few days. Later refugees, the destitute as The Times History of the War somewhat unkindly called them, started arriving in London in early September at the rate of 500 a day. The fall of Antwerp on 7 October rapidly increased the flow, with 11,000 disembarking at Folkestone in one day.
By June 1915 it is estimated 265,000 refugees had arrived in Britain from Belgium... Top of page: Belgian refugee children in the arms of a British soldier, 26 October 1918.
Numbers accelerated further after the fall of Ostend later that month, when 26,000 arrived at Folkestone, among them wounded Belgian soldiers. During November 45,000 refugees came to Britain. Thereafter the numbers decreased as it became increasingly difficult to cross the English Channel. However, by June 1915 it is estimated 265,000 refugees had arrived in Britain from Belgium, of whom 40,000 were wounded soldiers and 15,000 were Russian Jews who had worked in Antwerp’s diamond industry. Inevitably a few people were hostile, but they were small in number. Winston Churchill, for instance, grumbled: “They ought to stay there
MAY 2005
ANCESTORS • 43
Imperial War Museum Q9625
BELGIAN REFUGEES