Tuesday 9 August 2016

Belgian refugee boys to get new headstone in mid Cheshire

For quite a while now, Alan Lowe has been researching two Belgian refugee boys who have been buried in Northwich, albeit in a near pauper's grave. Only recently he settled the issue of the appropriate spelling, which made retrieving death certificates easier. The two Belgians are as follows:

  1. Frans Buyssens died on the 14th February 1915, aged 10, of tubercular peritonitis at Nortwhich infirmary. He was buried on the 15th February 1915. Frans's father was Francois Buyssens, a dock Labourer. 
  2. Henris Joseph Borghys died on the 9th June 1915, aged 10. He died of both tubercular peritonitis and intestinal obstruction at Northwich Infirmary, on the 10th June 1915. His father was Joseph Adolph Borghys of Ostend an Alkali Labourer. 
With funding obtained for a proper grave, the people behind this project are eager to find relatives of Frans Buyssens or H.J. Borghys. If you have any more information, please contact allen.lowe@sky.com.

You can find the entire story in more detail from Diverse Narratives, University of Chester, or through the pages of the Belgian Embassy in London.