Photo credit: Dennis Abbott/RBL
Today’s world leaders should heed the “mistakes” of the past or face the consequences, warns Count Henri d’Oultremont, who will celebrate his 101st birthday on Sunday (31 May).
As one of only three known Belgian survivors of the famous Piron Brigade, Henri knows what he is talking about.
The Belgo-Luxembourg unit went down in military folklore after it took part in the Liberation of Normandy and Belgium alongside the Allies.
One other member of that brave band of brothers, André Liegois, celebrated his 101st birthday a few days before Henri on 25 May.
In an interview just ahead of his birthday, Henri told this site he fears political leaders have not heeded the “mistakes” that led to the outbreak of WW2.
Speaking from his home in Brussels, he said, “Yes, that is my big fear. The people in charge of our lives today either do not remember or do not even know about what happened back then.
“I was lucky in a way because my father was in the military and I learned a lot from him about war and conflict.”
With several bitter wars still raging, including in Ukraine and Iran, Henri says he is reminded of the period that preceded the beginning of WW2.
Henri has visited schools in Belgium to impart his knowledge about such things to young people and says, “I try to explain to them how dangerous times are now as well, not least when you compare today with how it was between 1935 and 1940. There is, in a way, a similar political climate today as back then so my hope is that today’s political leaders will learn from the past.”
He tells people, especially younger people, that “we shouldn’t despair,” adding, “We’ve had over 80 years of peace so why should it change? We have to look for solutions so that the same doesn’t happen again.”
In a 2025 interview with Belgium’s RTBF Actu, he echoed these sentiments, saying, “Let us hope that sooner or later, but not too late, there will be an awakening somewhere. Maybe people will begin to say to themselves it just doesn’t make any sense to make the same stupid mistakes as 80 years ago.I’m very worried; not for myself, but for my children and for my grandchildren. With all that is happening now, I remember exactly what was going on when I was 13, 14, 15, the three years before 1940. We were sure something was going to happen. And we got ready.”
RBL membership
Last year, Henri was also granted centenarian membership of the Royal British Legion (RBL), a much-loved and important UK-based charity set up to help former and serving military personnel, as well as their families.
Among its many branches worldwide are three in Belgium, in Brussels, Ypres and Antwerp, which count scores of Belgians among their members.
Perhaps, there is no better example of the Belgians who have long supported the RBL than Henri who served in the latter stages of the war in the British Army with the Brigade Piron.
For his centenary in 2025, Henri received a richly deserved certificate of appreciation from the Brussels branch of the RBL.
Still in remarkably good health (and memory), he was asked by this site what it was like to serve with such brave comrades and in such trying times, to which he, in typical modest manner, replied, “I did my best.”
He thinks there are, today, only three known survivors of the brigade but is not quite sure, adding, “There could be more of course. Another one came forward just last year which was a bit of a shock.
“So, if there are out there who are still alive it would, of course, be wonderful to hear from them.”
He was born in 2025, the year the Treaty of Locarno was signed by France, Germany, the UK and Belgium, guaranteeing post-WWI territorial boundaries and fostering an all-too-brief era of European peace.
That was shattered by the outbreak of another world war, one in which Henri served with real pride and valour.
Henri’s remarkable life and story should really come as little surprise as he is proud to say he comes from a family of warriors – his father and grandfather, a national hero, both served in the Belgian Army.
A monument at Tervaete honours the memory of his grandfather, also named Henri, and the men under his command who died in the heroic counter-offensive during the Battle of the Yser in October 1914.
Looking forward to his birthday this weekend, Henri said, “I cannot wait. I will be surrounded by many family members – there are over 20 of them. We will have a nice little party, with a cup of tea, and it promises to be a wonderful occasion.”
Aside from his big day this Sunday, Henri, who lives with his son Juan on a farm in Woluwe Saint Lambert, has another special date on the near horizon.
Every year on the Saturday preceding Belgium’s National Day (July 21), he participates in the annual Belgian military parade in London and lays a wreath for the Brigade Piron at the Cenotaph war memorial in Whitehall. The parade was inaugurated by Britain’s King George V in 1934 to honour Belgium’s King Albert I, who died in a mountaineering accident. Belgium is the only non-Commonwealth country to have the honour of bearing arms at the Cenotaph.
The Piron Brigade
Henri joined the Brussels branch of the Royal British Legion in 2002, describing it as “a wonderful organisation”.
In a recent interview with RBL Brussels Chair, Dennis Abbott, Henri described his service with the Piron Brigade, from 1944-45, as “the best year of my life”.
Henri was 19 when he joined up, “eager to do his bit” after enduring more than four and a half years of enemy occupation in his home city of Liège.
Henri and his university friends enlisted when a British officer visited Liège. “In two months, 15,000 young Belgians joined the Brigade Piron and various Allied units,” he says.
Liège’s strategic importance as a rail junction meant it was heavily bombed by the Allies and Henri’s family home had no roof or windows. He lived in the cellar together with his mother and three sisters.
The Piron Brigade, named after its commander, Colonel (later General) Jean-Baptise Piron, had fought its way up the Normandy coast, liberating towns such as Cabourg and Deauville in August 1944, before crossing the Belgian border. On 4 September, “amid scenes of huge rejoicing,” it took part in the liberation of Brussels with the British Armoured Guards Division.
Life after the War
For the latest edition of the Brussels branch newsletter, The Wipers Times, Henri recorded an interview with member Michael Whitburn, whose own father Reg served in the Household Cavalry in 1945-47 and later chaired the branch.
“For Henri the opportunity to fight was personal. His paternal grandfather had been killed in October 1914 at Tervaete during the Battle of the Yser and his father François was captured in 1940 during the 18-day campaign and incarcerated in Germany for the rest of the war,” writes Michael.
May 1945 was not the end of the campaign for young Henri and his unit. They were ordered to Werne, a town in North Rhine-Westphalia, which was under the British Zone of Occupation.
“I always remember the date we arrived. It was the 31st May – my 20th birthday,” Henri told the RBL.
After being demobbed, Henri went to study engineering in Liège, where he would meet his future wife, Monique de Decker de Brandeken, at a dance. The couple married in July 1950.
Monique died in 2004 and Henri has remained a widower since. They had two children, daughter Dominique, and son Juan, a well-known artist, TV presenter and songwriter. Henri also has 11 grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren.
In his civilian life, Henri spent 33 years working in different roles for US multinational IBM, from salesman to press officer.
In May 2024, shortly before his 99th birthday, he recorded a YouTube video for the ‘My Three Lessons’ series in which people share insights they gained during their life and career.
Both Henri and André Liegois often attend RBL commemorations.
Two other Brigade veterans sadly passed away last August, Pierre Dufrane, aged 108, and Xavier Verzin, aged 100, and a third, José Michotte de Welle, died last month, aged 102.
After his birthday celebrations this weekend, Henri’s attention will turn to the annual RBL commemoration at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission plot in Brussels Town Cemetery (Evere) on 20 June.
The cemetery is the final resting place for war dead from the UK, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Greece, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland and South Africa.
Henri was decorated for his military service with honours including the Médaille du Volontaire 1940–1945, Médaille Commémorative de la Guerre 1940–45 and the Chevalier Ordre de la Couronne.
