A FAMILY AFFAIR
How Albert’s wife and son also helped to defend Belgium
When German forces overran Belgium at the start of World War I they conquered the entire country save for a strip of land in the country’s south west known as Flanders. It was to become a cauldron of slaughter, as shellfire and poison gas were poured into it by both the Germans and the Allies on an unprecedented scale. It was here that Albert would spend most of the war, frequently visiting his troops on the front line, experiencing many of the same dangers that they were subjected to.
But Albert wasn’t the only member of his family who’d do his bit during the Great War.
His wife, Elisabeth – despite being German herself – would also make morale-boosting visits to the Front, handing out cigarettes and chocolates. Her biggest contribution, however, was in helping the wounded. She established a major military hospital in the former Grand Hôtel de l’ocean in La Panne on the Belgian coast, where she and Albert were based. She actively funded the hospital and frequently visited wounded Belgian soldiers there.
She also helped organise a fleet of military ambulances to ferry the wounded between the Front and field hospitals. Hugely popular with the Belgian people, by the end of the war she was known as Queen Nurse.
However, as Belgium was plunged into the worst crisis in its 83-year history, it was the contribution made by Albert’s eldest son Prince Leopold, which was perhaps the most remarkable. Although only 14 at the time of the German invasion, he enlisted in the Belgian army as a private against the wishes of both his parents. He then served at the
Front throughout the early dark days of the war. It was only in 1915, after months of combat, he was finally persuaded that – as Belgium’s future king – he needed to finish his education, and went to England to continue his studies. The regiment he served with the 12th Regiment of the Line is the oldest in the Belgian army. It is known to this day as the Prince Leopold Regiment in his honour.