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 | Streets of the Old Lille |
Place Louis de Bettignies |
| In the past “place Martin Saint”. Louise of bettignies, born in Saint-Amand in 1880, belongs to the great figures of Resistance. When the 1st World war bursts, Louise of bettignies which lives in Lille since 1903, starts by looking after casualties then is contacted by the English army and her Intelligence Service. She takes part then in activities of espionage and, under the name of Alice Dubois, sets up a network of information which six months later account already 80 members. The network “Alice” makes pass from the men to England and informs the allies about the activities of the German army, the imminence of an attack in the sector of Verdun for example… “Alice” for Resistance, Louise of bettignies is “Pauline” for the French Army! Stopped by the Germans in 1915 in Froyennes close to Turned, it is condemned to died on March 16, 1916 before seeing its sorrow commuted to detention with perpetuity. In its cell with Siegburg, it contracts a pneumonia to which it succumbs on September 17, 1918 in Cologne. In 1927, in Lille, a monument with its memory is drawn up on which one can read “With louise of bettignies and with the women heroins of the invaded countries”. |
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The place Louise de Bettignies |
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| In the past Saint Martin's day place, of the name of the Saint Martin's day fountain which was close to the castle of Courtrai, the place Louise de Bettignies owes her name with resistant of the 1st world war. The house of Gilles de Boë, built in 1636, now placed a pub “With the Good Bubble” it shelters a sign loan-with-to carry. |
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Source : « Lille - Tome II : Lille-centre, Vieux-lille » de Patrice Rossez.
collection « Mémoires en Images » aux éditions Alan Sutton.
Dépôt légal : novembre 2002.
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