The Cemetery of Brussels

I have a long-standing journey which I have been travelling for some time. The details of which will be confirmed in a standalone entry within my blog. In a nutshell I am trying to locate the last resting place of an officer who fought at Waterloo. This officer retired to live in Brussels and died in 1847. Although his death was confirmed in the press, I have not been able to find any record where he was laid to rest.

Due to a decree by Emperor Joseph II in 1784 which was to ban the burial of the dead near churches. Cemeteries had to be surrounded by an outer wall and those within towns and cities had to be closed. This was to try and prevent unsanitary conditions.

In Brussels, Laeken cemetery remains the only one around the church. The parishes in the city joined forced to open three new cemeteries in Saint-Josse-ten-Noode, Saint-Gilles and Molenbeek-Saint-Jean. Haren cemetery did not fall under the decree yet became full at the end of the 19^th century, so a new cemetery was constructed outside of the residential area. In June 1874, the municipal board decided to purchase 30 hectares of land in the commune of Evere and create a huge main cemetery. This was soon extended by an additional eight hectares. Nine hundred tombs were transferred from old disused cemeteries to the new site. It was opened on the 15^th August 1877 and named the Cemetery of Brussels.

Therefore, many of the older cemeteries had been closed. Graves had been moved to new locations and many would have been removed and lost to history. The main factor is that the new cemeteries opened towards the end of the 1800s. Records of burials were not kept by the city until the 1850s and the grave I was trying to find dates from 1847.

I was invited by the Archive of Brussels to visit their offices and look through an exceptionally large file or correspondence. This file, which was not digitized, contained all the letters and forms for British persons who were already buried in Brussels and were now to be moved to the new cemetery once confirmed by the families. All these letters and forms dated between 1885 and 1895. I spent some hours looking through each letter and unfortunately could not find anything related to the Officer I was searching for. It is not surprising, as the officer’s wife had died in 1870 and their only Son had died in 1860, while on active service in the East Indies. Therefore, with no family, there was nobody to confirm what to do if his grave was to be removed.

I am back in the area late in March 2024 and have planned to visit all the cemeteries and enquire about any plot records relating to my Officer. In the meantime, I am corresponding online with the Protestant Churches in the area to see if they hold any records.

I decided while in Brussels to travel to the Cemetery of Brussels and what a fascinating place it is. When I return, I will visit the other historic cemeteries (Although all dating post 1847)

Located in Evere it opened in 1877 and is home to 11,000 graves. It is unusual as it has wide avenues connected by roundabouts. The graves are along the avenues or inside fields with a structured layout. It is home to many military monuments remembering the Prussian French War of 1870, Waterloo, German WWI, Belgians WI and WWII, soldiers of the Soviet Union WWII and Belgian Airmen.

The British Waterloo Memorial

The sculpture was created by Jacques de Lalaing and depicts Britania with a lowered trident and helmet. It was unveiled by the Duke of Cambridge on the 26^th August 1890 and paid for by public subscription. The Crypt underneath contains sixteen niches of which one is empty. Two of the niches contain two bodies, so there are seventeen in total. Four were killed at Quatre-Bras. Twelve were killed or mortally wounded at Waterloo. The only non-officer is Sergeant-Major Edward Cotton of the 7^th Hussars who did not die until 1849. Cotton had a horse killed from beneath him during the Battle of Waterloo and when he retired from the Army became a famous battlefield guide at Waterloo. He wrote the famous A Voice from Waterloo and created the first museum on the battlefield. Due to his longstanding work at Waterloo, he was given permission to be interned in the Crypt. He was originally buried in the Orchard of Hougoumont, and you can still see his headstone there. He was transferred to Evere in 1890.

Within the crypt is a plaque and facing the entrance to the crypt are two original tombstones to Lt-Col Sir Alexander Gordon and Captain HB Forbes who are both within the crypt. In front of the memorial is another original tombstone to Colonel Sir William Howe de Lancey, who was born in New York. His remains are also in the crypt.

Commonwealth War Graves section

There are fifty-four graves from the First World War, forty-nine of which were brought back from Germany by Canadian Corps in April 1919. (Prisoners of War). Canada did not want its soldiers buried on German soil.

A further 587 graves from the Second World War, some from May 1940 withdrawal to Dunkirk, some airmen whose planes were shot down and most on the lines of communication duties after the liberation of Brussels in September 1944.

Douglas Bader’s Father’s Grave

Douglas Bader was a Royal Air Force flying ace during the Second World War who lost both his legs in a flying accident in 1931. He is credited with twenty-two aerial victories. In 1941 he was captured after baling out over France. He made a number of escape attempts, had his false legs removed numerous times and eventually was sent to Colditz Castle, where he remained until April 1945.

His father Frederick Bader served in the First World War with the Royal Engineers. He was a Civil Engineer with experience in the Railways. He was severely injured by shrapnel in 1917. He was an officer of the Imperial War Graves Commission, he died from the effects of the WWI wounds while staying in Brussels in 1922.

Belgian World War One Memorial

Franco-Prussian War Memorials.