East Twickenham Centennial Group has received £8,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) to tell the exciting story of the “Belgian Village on the Thames” formed by 6000 Belgian refugees in Richmond and Twickenham in the First World War.

Thanks to National Lottery players, the project will revive this forgotten story for today’s residents of Richmond upon Thames. It begins on Saturday 1st April with a public event and exhibition for local residents, London Belgians and refugee descendants.

Over the following two years, it will continue its research via The National Archives in Kew and take the Belgian refugee story around and about the Borough through talks, walks and children’s workshops.

To mark the Centenary of the First World War, the project will bring refugee descendants from across UK and Belgium to share their family memories with local residents. 

Project Lead Helen Baker has already met 95-year old Edouard ("Teddie") Labeye whose refugee father married English Nellie Hammerton of the famous Twickenham watermen family (photo above).

More volunteers will collect old photos, newspaper clippings, documents, photograph family keepsakes and other volunteers will trawl individual Belgian record cards held at The National Archives to create an online database of individual refugees with their local addresses.

The aim is to re-create a picture of what the functioning “Belgian Village “ was like. Trained by experts, volunteers themselves will learn a range of new skills from archive research through event management to museum work.

The Richmond and Twickenham Belgian community was unique. Like many other Belgian communities, it was created by a munitions factory offering employment. But less than a handful of towns in the UK had so many Belgians, and none of these were created by independent Belgian businesses.

The Twickenham-Richmond set-up created a genuine community where Belgians from all walks of life lived together as they might in Belgium.
With help from professionals, the information gathered will be digitally recorded and an on-line interactive archive will be created where everyone can access and contribute information. The archive will allow the public to discuss, contribute, share and research information about the Home Front.

Helen Baker, East Twickenham Centennial Chair, said  “We are so thrilled to receive the Heritage Lottery Fund support. We have been so excited to re-discover the story of our First World War Belgian refugees, and this will help us share it with everyone across the Borough to make sure it is never forgotten again.”

Stuart Hobley, Head of HLF London, said: "The impact of the First World War was far reaching, touching and shaping every corner of the UK and beyond. Thanks to National Lottery players, the Heritage Lottery Fund has already been able to invest more than £83.5 million into more than 1,650 projects – large and small - that are marking this global Centenary. With this funding we are enabling even more communities like those involved in the ‘Belgian Refugee project’ to explore the continuing legacy of this conflict and help people to broaden their understanding of how it has shaped our modern world".

Article supplied by Helen Baker