Memorial Plate "The Battle of Mons begins"

The first shots of the Battle of Mons were fired here on the morning of 23 August 1914 by soldiers of the 4tb Battalion The Middlesex Regiment. By 1pm, the battalion had suffered such heavy losses that it was forced to retreat. An unidentified British soldier found himself on the roof of the station and sacrificed his life covering the retreat of his comrades. He remained behind alone among the dead and wounded, perched on the roof of the station, and held off the Germans who eventually wounded him, then forced their way into the roof and finished him off.
During the same action, Lieutenant Wilmot-Aliston of the same battalion was captured by the German troops and thus became the first British prisoner of war in the First World War. In total, 353 British soldiers and 15 officers were killed or wounded during this first skirmish in Obourg.
A memorial plaque on the station wall was inaugurated on 9 September 1951. When the station was demolished in 1981, the plaque was moved to a red-brick memorial on the site of the old station.

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