Memorial Mathieu Bodson

In the cemetery of Jupille-sur-Meuse is the monument to the fallen during the 1st World War.

This monument is dedicated to Mathieu Bodson, who was executed as a spy during the 1st World War on September 14th, 1916 at the age of 23.

He was born at Jupille on August 3rd, 1893 and joined the Belgian army as a volunteer when the war broke out in 1914. He was assigned to the engineers. However, due to health problems he was discharged from service. Later in the war he was recruited by the British army for espionage services.

His main work was forging passports that allowed Belgians (civilians and soldiers) to cross the border into neutral Holland. Civilians to flee the violence of war, and soldiers who were cut off from their units to be redeployed to Belgium via England. It also hid Belgian soldiers.

However, the Netherlands interned Belgian, German, French or British soldiers who crossed its border to preserve its strict neutrality. In many cases the soldiers of the belligerent powers will not have crossed the border in uniform, but as soon as it became clear after questioning that a soldier was involved, they were interned.

Even towards the end of the war when part of the German army from Belgium took the shortest route to Germany near Susteren in Dutch Limburg where the border between Belgium, Holland and Germany is only about 25 km, the German soldiers including officers were ordered to surrender their weapons. Only without weapons were they allowed to pass through the Netherlands to Germany.

After the Germans caught him, he was imprisoned in Brussels for 3 months. There his mother came to visit him and managed to keep his death sentence hidden from her. A month after his execution, his mother died of grief.

Mathieu Bodson was reburied after the war in the cemetery of Jupille-Bruyères in Jupille-sur-Meuse where this monument was erected in his honor. A memorial at Jupille was also erected for him.

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Source

• Text: Ed Lewandowski
• Photos: Ed Lewandowski
• https://connaitrelawallonie.wallonie.be/fr/culture-et-patrimoine/patrimoine/monument-mathieu-bodson
• https://bel-memorial.org
• https://wardeadregister.be