On This Day, 11 March 1916

Evening Despatch (excerpt)

Saturday 11 March 1916

VISIT OF PRINCESS NAPOLEON.
Belgian Art Exhibition.
REFUGEES’ WELCOME.
A Crowded Day in Birmingham.

To those exiled Belgians who have found a temporary refuge in Birmingham the visit of a member of the Royal house of their own country, the Princess Napoleon, daughter of their late King, was welcomed.
The main object of the visit of the Princess to the city was to open the exhibition of Belgian art at the gallery of the Royal Society of Artists, but the opportunity was also embraced of seeing this colony of refugees in Birmingham and of visiting the Belgian tenements in Beaufort-road, Edgbaston.
Quite a large crowd assembled at New-street Station to get a glimpse of her Royal Highness. Awaiting her were the Lord Mayor (Alderman Neville Chamberlain), M. Paul Lambotte (Director of Fine Arts, Belgium), and M. Adolf Myers (the Belgian Consul). After the Lord Mayor had been presented the Princess, who was accompanied by her lady-in-waiting (Mdlle. A. Bassompierre), left with Alderman Chamberlain in the Lord Mayor’s new car, used for the first time in a ceremonial function, for the Town Hall, where the Belgian colony had assembled…

Before leaving the Town Hall to visit the tenements at Edgbaston there were presented to the Princess M. Morgin and M. L. Zwah, representatives of the National Committee for relief in Belgium, and several officers of Le Penny Belge. As her Highness passed out of the hall she paused to express to Mrs. George Cadbury thanks for the kindness and care which is being bestowed upon the Belgians in Birmingham, and to Alderman Lloyd, who was also presented to her, she also acknowledged the part he had played in providing for them.

BELGIAN ART.

Following the visit to the tenements, the Princess drove to the rooms of the Royal Society of Artists, where she was received by Sir Whitworth Wallace [sic] and other representative citizens. Sir Whitworth re-marked that the artistic abilities of many distinguished Belgian artists had long secured recognition in England. To their admiration had recently been added their sincere sympathy, by reasons of the suffering and privations which so many of them had had to endure, and, further, by the unexampled sacrifices and patriotism of the Belgian nation. Whether the tragedies recently enacted in Belgium may influence her art the future alone would show. But however ruthless the devastation by Germany, the soul of the Belgian artist and craftsman had not been, and would not be destroyed.
The Princess then declared the exhibition open. “It gives me great pleasure,” she said, “in having this opportunity of thanking the Birmingham Society of Artists who have organised this exhibition for their flattering hospitality which they have so kindly extended to the Belgian artists, and also to thank the Lord Mayor for the splendid help he has given to the Belgian sufferers, both soldiers and refugees. The noble city of Birmingham had shown itself extremely kind and generous.”

THE LORD MAYOR’S ADDRESS.

The Lord Mayor said that to the Belgians who, after being driven from their country had found a refuge in Birmingham, that was indeed a red-letter day. In opening their doors in Birmingham to the Belgian refugees they felt they were only trying to repay in some small degree the obligations which we and our Allies owed to the Belgians. He begged to assure her Royal Highness of their unalterable determination never to rest until her country-men and countrywomen were once more happily restored to their native land.

M. Paul Lambotte, on behalf of the Belgian Government, thanked the society, the officials, the Lord Mayor, and all who has assisted that scheme, which had for its objects the making known ad popularising of the names of the principal Belgian artists and of giving to the artists opportunities for the sale of their work in order that they might by work find a dignified way of living.
The subsequent programme arranged included a visit to a factory and tea of the invitation of the Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress at the Art Gallery, where seventy representative Belgians and local citizens attended.