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Memorial Léon Trulin Lille

Next to the opera, on a street named after him, stands a statue of Léon Trulin, "the teenager laden with glory."

Léon Trulin was born in Ath, Belgium, on June 2, 1897, to a family of eight children. After his father's death, they moved to Lille.
He was 18 when he enlisted in British intelligence.
He was tasked with providing information on German troops stationed in and around Lille, specifically on airfields, artillery, air defenses, ammunition depots, and wireless telegraph stations.
To do this, in June 1915, he formed "Noël Lurtin," a group of friends between the ages of 15 and 18 who crisscrossed Belgium and the Netherlands, delivering reports, photographs, and other plans of German military installations.
Trulin, along with his friend Raymond Derain, was arrested by a German patrol on August 3, 1915, as they attempted to cross the Dutch border.
They were transferred to the prison in the Citadel of Lille, where they were reunited with other group members who had also been arrested.
Léon was considered the head of the espionage network and sentenced to death by a military court on November 5th. On November 8th, 1915, he was shot in the ditches of the Citadel of Lille.

Léon Trulin is honored in Lille with a street and a school named after him. He is a symbol of the Franco-Belgian alliance and an example of his courage and action against the occupation at the tender age of 18.






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Source

  • Text: Traces of War
  • Photos: Marie-Christine Vinck