Belgian refugees in Britain

Desperate migrants, embraced with open arms

Alex Q. Arbuckle

1914-1918

[img src="http://i.amz.mshcdn.com/KlL5fj8yIU7R9NJZBOQRJu9eUcQ=/fit-in/1440x1440/uploads%2F2016%2F6%2F24%2Fbelgianrefugees_10.jpg" caption="Belgian refugees on the harbour at Ostend waiting for a boat to take them to England." credit="Print Collector/Getty Images" alt=""]

At the outbreak of World War I in the summer of 1914, Germany invaded Belgium on its way to France, sending hundreds of thousands of Belgian refugees fleeing for their lives.A quarter of a million Belgians managed to make it across the English Channel to Britain — the largest influx of refugees in the country’s history. There, they were greeted warmly by the government and the public and received housing in specially-built communities and the homes of generous Britons. Refugees were put to work aiding the war effort, some of them in all-Belgian factories, such as London’s Belgian Munition Works, which employed 2000 displaced individuals.The broad sense of hospitality was inspired by stories of German atrocities in Belgium as well as the prevailing expectation that the war would quickly be over and the refugees would return home.As the war dragged on into a stalemate of unprecedented scale and horror, tensions and resentments rose between some Britons and their guests, whose stay had come to seem almost permanent.When the war finally ended, both the British and Belgian governments implored the refugees to return home. Ninety percent of the refugees left within a year of the signing of the Armistice, leaving little footprint of their massive displacement.

[img src="http://i.amz.mshcdn.com/hfO_SdbeOefvRrqdM_4yIOMjc-g=/fit-in/1440x1440/uploads%2F2016%2F6%2F24%2Fbelgianrefugees_3.jpg" caption="Belgian refugees carry their belongings ahead of invading troops through Northern France." credit="Central Press/Getty Images" alt=""]

[img src="http://i.amz.mshcdn.com/KShQsEOx-Fprno-osutNpQO2umw=/fit-in/1440x1440/uploads%2F2016%2F6%2F24%2Fbelgianrefugees_2.jpg" caption="Belgian refugees arrive in the Netherlands." credit="Central Press/Hulton Archive/Getty Images" alt=""]

[img src="http://i.amz.mshcdn.com/wrQWTa16YEFefCpULLHbzrz9-So=/fit-in/1440x1440/uploads%2F2016%2F6%2F24%2Fbelgianrefugees_7.jpg" caption="Belgian refugees sleep in a barn in France on Christmas Eve." credit="Photo12/UIG/Getty Images" alt=""]

[img src="http://i.amz.mshcdn.com/fZ1PKPVltLDfAdDHjNrC3THR6WI=/fit-in/1440x1440/uploads%2F2016%2F6%2F24%2Fbelgianrefugees_11.jpg" caption="Belgian refugees read Flemish messages left by other refugees in a French town." credit="Three Lions/Getty Images" alt=""]

[img src="http://i.amz.mshcdn.com/l_m_BQbUA8UX_jlo4aO0l5BEudo=/fit-in/1440x1440/uploads%2F2016%2F6%2F24%2Fbelgianrefugees_1.jpg" caption="Belgian refugees arrive in the Welsh town of Rhyl." credit="Past Pix/SSPL/Getty Images" alt=""]

[img src="http://i.amz.mshcdn.com/FpQEjDYp4cGqAY-KSgha9fLwsY8=/fit-in/1440x1440/uploads%2F2016%2F6%2F24%2Fbelgianrefugees_4.jpg" caption="A group of young refugees in London." credit="Topical Press Agency/Getty Images" alt=""]

[img src="http://i.amz.mshcdn.com/-yMAGBzmcS5I4hlwjV6OGjaAIqY=/fit-in/1440x1440/uploads%2F2016%2F6%2F24%2Fbelgianrefugees_5.jpg" caption="Refugees in London." credit="Topical Press Agency/Getty Images" alt=""]

[img src="http://i.amz.mshcdn.com/NTGMQfnjtqsktpNe22rwZQTAIs0=/fit-in/1440x1440/uploads%2F2016%2F6%2F24%2Fbelgianrefugees_6.jpg" caption="Belgian refugees in a Kensington workhouse." credit="Hulton Archive/Getty Images" alt=""]

[img src="http://i.amz.mshcdn.com/mfjGl60KaGi-lhCJFlRwcaHKrcQ=/fit-in/1440x1440/uploads%2F2016%2F6%2F24%2Fbelgianrefugees_9.jpg" caption="Belgian refugee soldiers in their camp at Hyde near Manchester." credit="Past Pix/SSPL/Getty Images" alt=""]

[img src="http://i.amz.mshcdn.com/g_UACW4ugDpEDByceECc3H75doY=/fit-in/1440x1440/uploads%2F2016%2F6%2F24%2Fbelgianrefugees_12.jpg" caption="A group portrait of the managers and workers in the Belgian Munition Works in London, which employed Belgian refugees to manufacture grenades and artillery shells for the war effort." credit="English Heritage/Heritage Images/Getty Images" alt=""]

[img src="http://i.amz.mshcdn.com/u-rWy3gSSMhnHTMWSDkh-PJ3vq8=/fit-in/1440x1440/uploads%2F2016%2F6%2F24%2Fbelgianrefugees_13.jpg" caption="Belgian refugees manufacture artillery shells at the Belgian Munition Works in London." credit="English Heritage/Heritage Images/Getty Images" alt=""]

[img src="http://i.amz.mshcdn.com/xktNJLQJbXGCXuZ4sZc9Yhoaw_c=/fit-in/1440x1440/uploads%2F2016%2F6%2F24%2Fbelgianrefugees_14.jpg" caption="Belgian refugee women use lathes to make ammunition casings at the Belgian Munition Works in London." credit="English Heritage/Heritage Images/Getty Images" alt=""]

[img src="http://i.amz.mshcdn.com/gM12C3lTV98MflSolbMTRigSGGo=/fit-in/1440x1440/uploads%2F2016%2F6%2F24%2Fbelgianrefugees_16.jpg" caption="Belgian refugees outside the Belgian Munition Works in London, where they were employed to manufacture explosives for the war effort." credit="English Heritage/Heritage Images/Getty Images" alt=""]

[img src="http://i.amz.mshcdn.com/qXISJI7pJNWokaWZrwIHgWGx-jQ=/fit-in/1440x1440/uploads%2F2016%2F6%2F24%2Fbelgianrefugees_8.jpg" caption="Belgian refugees in London celebrate Independence Day." credit="Thompson/FPG/Archive Photos/Getty Images" alt=""]