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Archives of the Royal Military Museum 

Documentation Centre 
Parc du Cinquantenaire 3
1000 Brussels
E-mail : cdoc.klm-mra@warheritage.be   
Website: www.warheritage.be

In the empty Lyceum building on Spiegelrei, Bruges, the names of Elsa Blondeel, Madeleine Lefort, and Laure Van Aken appear on a memorial plaque. These three women attended this school… and all passed away during or shortly after World War I.

After the liberation of Bruges on October 19, 1918, Elsa, Madeleine and Laure volunteer as nurses for the Red Cross, caring for soldiers in the Normal School and the English Convent, which had been turned into a field hospital.

October 29, 1918: Elsa dies at home from the Spanish flu, shortly after starting as a volunteer. She rests at the Central Cemetery in Bruges with her parents and her brother Carlos, a 14-18 war veteran.

October 31, 1918: Two days later, her friend Madeleine also dies of the flu. She is buried in the family grave at the municipal cemetery in Tienen.

February 14, 1920: Laure passes away as well. Her death date falls outside the legal period for recognition as a war victim, so she never received the “died for Belgium” mention.

Elsa

Madeleine