Book

The following are references to Belgian refugees in the book:

Page 27
The outbreak of war brought an almost immediate but unexpected influx of Belgian refugees.
News reports describing the atrocities overseas were so shocking (although many were subsequently found to have little basis in truth) people immediately agreed to take the refugees in.

Page 28
The arrival of the first refugees brought first hand information of events across the Channel.
On 17 August Lady Flora Lugard had decided to do something and was informed by the Royal Navy that a “shipload” of refugees was due on 24 August . She acquired an office, a committee, staff and accommodation for several hundred refugees. She was helped by Edith Lyttleton, a MP’s widow.

Page 29
Description of how Flora and Edith set up office. A Refugee Appeal was launched. Over 5000 letters and 1200 volunteers appeared at the offices.

Page 30
The refugees began arriving from all sections of society; soon they numbered 12000. Attempts were made to place them in accommodation and society that they were accustomed to.

Page 31
By early October 200000 refugees were in Britain and dispersed across the country.
A bored Agatha Christie, working in a Torquay dispensary, created the Belgian detective, Hercule Poirot.

Page 32
In 1915 due to a shortage of British women workers, a complete Belgian town, Elisabethville, was created to house over 6000 at Birtley, south of Newcastle. They worked mainly at the new Armstrong Whitworth shell factory. 3500 Belgian men injured but deemed fit for work were withdrawn from military hospitals in England, France and the Netherlands and sent to Birtley. The British and Belgian communities initially lived separately, partially due to language difficulties but were gradually brought together by culture.

Page 33
New laws were enacted requiring all aliens to be registered at a specific address; if found elsewhere the worst was usually thought and the law stepped in.
There is almost nothing left of Elisabethville today. The Belgians were repatriated in 1918 although some men stayed and married local girls.

Page 37
The Women’s Emergency Corps formed the day after the war began aimed to act as a central hub for volunteers. Some of the first volunteers acted as interpreters for the Belgian refugees.

Page 153
The arrival of the Belgian refugees prompted Margaret Damer Dawson, a campaigner against trafficking, to suspect that men were coercing displaced women into prostitution.

Page 250
Dispersed Belgian refugees arriving in Bridport needed to work. The rope sheds took the men on as labourers and the women taught the rudiments of knotting and splicing before joining the other net makers.

The following are references to other people or events from County Durham:

p 19, 61
Zepplin attack on Sunderland, 1 April 1916 Viktor Schutze

p 35
Marchioness of Londonderry as colonel-in-chief of Women’s Volunteer Reserve

p 47
reminiscence of women working in Sunderland shipyards

p 49
rejection of women workers by Durham Miners Association, reported in Sunderland Echo

p 53
Sunderland Suffrage Society report of strike by women on Great Western Railway

p 63
Austrian ancestor hassled, arrests of German and other foreign nationals in the area

Publication date: 2014

Author: Kate Adie

Reference: 940.315

Where to find this: Durham County Library Service

Contributed by Durham Record Office | Durham at War Volunteer