Wars generate many stories of heroism, service and sacrifice, here, Bill Hern tells the story of Jacques M’Bondo whose life was one of adventure, travel, mystery and, ultimately, sadness.
Jacques was born in 1894 or 1895 in Ouaka Prefecture. This is now within the Central African Republic but was part of the Belgian Congo when Jacques was born.
He left his homeland when he was very young and we believe he had already spent some time in England before moving to Brussels in December 1911. Quite how Jacques got to England is the first of many mysteries surrounding his life. It wasn’t uncommon for very young men looking for adventure or escaping from misery to run away to sea but Ouaka is landlocked. Jacques would have had quite a journey to reach his nearest seaport.
While in Brussels he worked as a waiter and met Wladislawa Olszewski, a seamstress, 7 years his senior. Wladislawa is variously described as Polish and Russian but, like Jacques, she was clearly a long way from the country of her birth.
The couple moved to Paris at the end of 1912 and returned to Brussels on New Year’s Day 1914. Jacques became a seller of cardboard. It is suggested that Jacques and Wladislawa married later in 1914 but there is no evidence to substantiate this. Indeed it is quite probable that Jacques and Wladislawa never saw one another again after August or September 1914 when Jacques went off to war.
On 4 August 1914 the Germans invaded Belgium. They showed no mercy and their incursion became known as ‘The Rape of Belgium’. Amongst many atrocities was the shooting by firing squad in Brussels in October 1915 of the British nurse Edith Cavell.
In the immediate chaos Jacques enlisted with the 5th Volunteer Corps on 10 August 1914.
The caption to the picture below boasts that in the Belgian Army were “many negroes drawn from the Congo in Africa.” It denies the existence of any form of “colour bar” and stresses that “black and white fraternise freely in the titanic struggle against the “German invader.”
Frankly, nothing could be further from the truth.
Although Congolese soldiers had previously fought bravely in Africa, the Belgian Government was determined that no black troops should fight in Europe. They did not want black people to see white soldiers lose their aura of superiority by being seen floundering in mud or under attack from the enemy.
This was a view shared by the Germans who, given their barbaric actions in Belgium, rather hypocritically argued that black troops were savages who wouldn’t be able to comply with the normal rules of warfare. As David Olusoga writes in The World’s War – Forgotten Soldiers of Empire [page 186] “In the interest of humanity and civilization, Berlin demanded that coloured troops no longer be used upon the European arena of War.”
By enlisting so quickly Jacques had been able to circumvent this colour bar. He was not alone. Not quite anyway. At the end of the War the Belgians issued a questionnaire to all Regiments. One of the questions asked how many black soldiers had fought for them? The answer should, of course, have been “none” but 27 black soldiers were identified. This figure later rose to 32. This was out of a Belgian army comprising 100,000 men.
Jacques was hospitalised in Ghent from 24 to 27 September 1914 and demobilised from the Army when he left hospital. We don’t know the cause or nature of his injury but he re-enlisted shortly afterwards.
The next confirmed record of Jacques is on 4 November 1914 when he was shot in the groin during a German attack near Saint George (Belgium) in the aftermath of the Battle of Yser. It was here, after 2 months of defeats, the Belgians finally halted the German invasion that had given them control of over 95% of Belgian territory.
Jacques was taken to Charing Cross Hospital in London for treatment. Quite why Jacques was transported so far is a further mystery. There is no evidence that he ever returned to Belgium.
It is estimated that around 250,000 Belgian refugees fled to England after the German invasion. Many ended up in the Twickenham/Richmond area of south-west London and were employed by a Belgian entrepreneur, Charles Pelabon. Pelabon had transformed a disused roller skating rink in East Twickenham into a munitions factory.
Jacques’ life is then undocumented until 2 January 1918 when he was transferred to a Belgian-run munitions factory in Birtley, County Durham.
Tragedy struck shortly afterwards on 28 January 1918 when Jacques died from pneumonia. He was 23 or 24 years old.
Let us try to piece together the last 3 years or so of Jacques’ life. If, as we assume, he didn’t return to Belgium after being wounded, it is highly probable he would have been involved in the munitions factory at East Twickenham.
When he died he had reached the rank of Corporal. As a young African man he certainly wouldn’t have been recruited at that rank so he must have impressed greatly in order to gain promotion not once but twice. Therefore whatever he did, whether it be at the munitions factory or elsewhere, he did well.
We can be pretty certain he never again saw Wladislawa after leaving Belgium. This is because a lady called Bizo Bena (short for Bernadette) was with him when he died. Bizo was described on the death certificate as his wife.
Bizo lived at 28, Larkfield Road in Richmond. It is highly likely that Bizo was a fellow African who had fled to England from Belgium when War broke out.
There is no record of a marriage taking place so perhaps Jacques and Bizo never legally married? Perhaps he was still married to Wladislawa if indeed such a marriage had taken place?
Whatever the formal arrangements, Bizo and Jacques were close enough for her to be by his side and 300 miles away from her home in Richmond when he passed away in County Durham.
If Bizo lived at Larkfield Road it seems safe to assume that her ‘husband’ Jacques also resided there. There is little likelihood that Bizo and Jacques owned the house in Larkfield Road. It is a large house as can be seen below and had at least 5 bedrooms. In 2013 sold for £1.325 million.
The Belgian refugees had been well received by the British people and it is probable that many of them shared the house in Larkfield Road.
At the end of the War almost all of the refugees returned to Belgium. The 1939 Register shows that the residents of Larkfield Road were in the main civil servants, salespersons or retired. Walter Wilson a civil servant with the Ministry of Health and Charlotte Young, a widow and her 4 grown up children lived at number 28 in two separate households.
Jacques was among the Belgian soldiers, many of them injured, who were transferred to the Belgian-run munitions factory in Birtley. The Belgians lived within their own community in Elizabethville within Birtley. At its peak 6,000 Belgians lived in the village which had its own schools, hospitals and other services.
Jacques arrived in Birtley on 2 January 1918 but was soon taken ill. On 28 January 1918 he died of pneumonia. Bizo Bena was with him as was the Belgian Chaplain Peter Verpoorten.
Jacques’ previous address is shown on his death certificate was 7, Rue De Cannon, Brussels.
Jacques is buried, along with another 12 Belgians who died while working at the munitions factory, at the Elizabethville Roman Catholic Cemetery at Birtley. The cemetery is poorly signposted and sadly, not well maintained. See photographs below.
Jacques had squeezed a lot into his 23 or 24 years. He had lived in the Congo, Brussels, Paris and England. He had fought in The Great War and, possibly, married twice. There is no record of any children. He will rest forever in a grave in the north-east of England over 6,000 miles from his birthplace.
Nothing else is known of Bizo Bena. Presumably after Jacques’ funeral she packed their possessions and made the long journey back to Richmond and returned to Belgium after the War.
The Belgian authorities traced Wladislawa to Greep Street in Brussels. She was reported to have died in a lunatic asylum in Mons in 1929 aged 42.
Of the other 32 Congolese soldiers most returned to poverty, many of them suffering from chest ailments caused through gassing.
There was one notable exception – Paul Panda Farnana. Farnana was an educated young man when he enlisted. He was captured by the Germans on 23 August 1914 and held a prisoner of war until 1918. After the War he founded the Union Congolaise an organisation which defended the interests of other Congolese veterans of war. He fought hard for other rights for Congolese people but died aged only 42 in 1930.
The efforts of all 32 Congolese troops were finally recognised on Armistice Day 2010 with the unveiling of a memorial in Brussels. Jacques’ name is proudly on display along with the other 31 Congolese heroes.
With thanks to – From Ouaka to Birtley – Amsab-Instituut voor Sociale Geschiedenis