The Birtley Belgians

The Birtley Belgians are the heroes of a tale until comparatively recently known to a fairly small number of people in and around the village of Birtley, County Durham, England as well as a dwindling number of Belgians – and even then only imperfectly.

The Great War

The story starts in the early stages of World War I, ‘The Great War’, when Britain at last realised that its armaments were no match in either effectiveness or numbers for those being put to horribly efficient use by a fully modernised German Army. Indeed, so bad were things as far as ammunition was concerned that the Commander in Chief of the British Army, Lord French, had had to order at least some of the big guns at the front to fire no more than ten shells per day, in order to conserve ammunition! The Asquith government immediately resigned. The new Government of National Unity at once set about building munitions factories all over the country but had problems getting people to work in them, seeing that most munitions workers were by now at the front (and probably cursing the fact that there was no ammo for the guns!), while most of the female workforce was already in employment in other factories.

Approach to Belgium

Prior to the war, Belgium had been regarded as the foremost European country for the manufacture of armaments. A suggestion was made by Graham Spicer, an official in the newly created Ministry of Munitions who had been working in Belgium before the war and knew its manufacturing capabilities, that perhaps its Government might be able to help. An approach was made, and the result was that 1000 volunteers – skilled Belgian armaments workers – were withdrawn from the front, albeit with some reluctance since they were badly need there, to help train other volunteers. As the result of another suggestion (probably from the same Ministry of Munitions official) most of these volunteers were drawn from the pool of soldiers who had been badly wounded at the front and deemed unfit to return there … but not deemed unfit to do a job of work, and who were still keen to serve their country in some way rather than lie around a rehabilitation centre doing nothing but basket-making, for example.

New munitions factory

So, late in 1915, several hundred Belgians made their way to a brand-new munitions factory at Birtley, County Durham, to begin their all-important job of making shells to help regain their own country from the enemy. Over the next few months their numbers steadily grew until there were about 3500 of them … but that was not the end of the tale.

New village

It was obvious that all these men could not be billeted on people in Birtley, so it was agreed to build a village alongside the factory; both would be financed by the British but the overall day-to-day control was handed over to Belgian management, led by M Hubert Debauche, Director-General until the outbreak of war of a large and well-known iron and steel manufacturing firm (Société des Forges, Usines et Fonderies de Gilly) in Gilly, near Charleroi, Belgium. At the same time, the British and Belgian governments set about re-uniting the married men with their families, many of whom had been forced to flee Belgium before the German onslaught. So, in the course of time, a Belgian colony of well over 6000 people was established alongside the British village of Birtley – as one writer put it: a piece of Belgium wedged into the centre of British territory […] not, however, quite Belgium, and certainly not Britain. The village was self-sufficient, with its own shops, church, school, football field and theatre, plus a canteen that catered for single workers. There was little need for the Belgians to go into Birtley: this they could do, but they needed a pass, and certainly at first they were dissuaded from fraternising with the locals by the authorities, who banned them from most of the pubs in the area … just in case of trouble. Trouble there was, from time to time, but no more than usual for Birtley!

Charitable activities

The men had a limited amount of spare time, but it is amazing how many societies they formed – literary, musical, dramatic and sporting, etc. It is even more amazing however that all these societies had but one main aim – to raise money for British and Belgian wartime charities. The total amount raised probably equates to hundreds of thousands of pounds today, if not millions. For well over two years these ‘war-wounded’ worked day and night shifts – one week days, next week nights – of 12 hours, with an hour off in the middle for a meal, in conditions of extreme heat and noise. (There was no Factories Act in those days!) Still, it was better than at the Front.

The Armistice

But with the Armistice the whole enterprise came to a sudden end as the Belgians were quickly repatriated. The village became a ghost town, taken over (for free) by the local poor and homeless, the factory was partly sold off, and in the 1930s the work of demolition began. Now all that is left are two blocks that were once the food-store and the butcher’s.

Epilogue

The Birtley Belgians, 85% ‘war-wounded’, made their mark, however: they produced the shells they were asked to make at a rate far better than that of any National Projectile Factory in the land. A magnificent epitaph indeed! They are gone but not forgotten. Almost – but not quite.

References

• The Birtley Belgians by McMurtrie & Schlesinger: first pub. 1987 History of Education Project (o.o.p.); 5th edition pub.2003 History of Education Project, Miners Hall, Red Hill, Durham DH1 4BB (GB)
• Arms & the Heroes by John G Bygate, first pub. 2006, also by HEP.

External links

• http://www.birtley-elisabethville.be (in French)