Belgian Refugees in North Wales
Photograph of the Geens family, Belgian refugees in Prestatyn during the First World War.
Autograph album, front page only, is another photograph of the Geens family.
With the threat of the Germans moving into Belgium, the contributor's mother's family came to England from Melines, also called Mechelin, in Belgium, north of Brussels. They were then sent to Prestatyn in North Wales. The family consisted of Alfred Geens, his wife Jeanne and his two children, Helene, the contributors mother (aged about 12) and Yvon (aged about 9), along with two maiden aunts, Cornelia and Marie Andries. By 1915 Alfred had gone back to Belgium, as he was worried about his electricity business, leaving the rest of the family behind in North Wales. He wanted the others to go, but Helene stayed with the two aunts, who didn't speak any English, in Prestatyn for the rest of the war. She went to a private girls school and Yvon went to the local primary school, before he returned to Belgium.
The family in Belgium had a German officer billeted with them, in Melines, for the rest of the war.
CONTRIBUTOR
Diane MacEwan
DATE
1914 - 1918
LANGUAGE
eng
ITEMS
1
INSTITUTION
Europeana 1914-1918
PROGRESS
METADATA
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