VAN MAELE History
I am
contacting you as great-grandson of Jean Van Maele (second in the name).
Thank you
for the page dedicated to him and its content that allowed my grandmother to
learn things about her father, Jean, who died in his fifties following the
impact on the nose of a shrapnel during the Great War.
I have
things to tell you in the article of what I know, I have a photo of Jean and a
sword given by the King of Serbia to my great-grandfather.
I am
sending you several e-mails photos of the ceremonial sword which measures about
fifty centimeters and various documents: death certificate of Jean (François)
Van Maele, founder of the armoury in 1866 and died in 1890, as well as the
family coat of arms of the Van Maele family, annotated by Jean Van Maele.
There are
3 Van Maele who ran the armoury Rue Gretry : Jean (François) Van Maele from 1866
, taken over by Léopold (Jean) Van Maele in 1890 and finally by Jean Van Maele
before the guns were confiscated by the Germans in 40 and ruined, my great
grandfather never recovered financially. My grandmother, Amy Van Maele (Jean
married an Englishwoman in Cambridge in remission of his war wound), was
particularly moved by the content of your site and was able to learn, at the age
of 95, the origins of her father's armoury, very silent about all this.
Christophe VB.
Article:
date unknown
Photo armoury : taken during the sale of a page armour of the sixteenth century on August 10, 1928
(the back
of the envelope is a draft by Jean Van Maele and mentions the history of the
armour acquired by Jean (François) Van Maele in 1875.
Wedding
photo of Céline Van Campenhout with Joseph List (in the foreground) with Léopold
(Jean) Van Maele, his wife Wilhelmine VC and their two children : Jean Van Maele
and Louise Van Maele in 1906.
I also
learned from an excerpt from a family tree that Jean Van Maele, the last owner
of the armoury, was wounded on October 6, 1914 during the Battle of the Nethe
and was decorated.