No love for Father Damien?
Audrey Hepburn was born in Belgium, but I don’t know that she ever claimed Belgian citizenship. Neither of her parents was Belgian-- one was British, and one was Dutch, IIRC. She lived in the UK for a while, and spent WWII famously in Holland, enduring the hongerwinter. I believe she held British citizenship most of her life, through her father, although she briefly held a Dutch passport, because her mother thought she’d fare better as Dutch during the war. She returned to Britain after the war.
Her first husband was American, and they lived in the US and Switzerland, and she never claimed to be an American-- she specifically said this in at least one interview I heard. Her second husband was Italian, which under Italian law made her Italian. I don’t know if her citizenship was repealed when she divorced him. She lived with someone for her last decade of so, but never married him, and IIRC, they lived in Switzerland.
So, Audrey Hepburn, born in Belgium, but not Belgian.
I vote for Magritte.
And Peyo (smurfs).
The problem with some of the older ones is that even if they were born in a place that’s now Belgium, the identity of the area has changed. They were “Belgians” like Vercingetorix was “French” or Seneca was a “Spaniard” (and Seneca at least happened to be born in Hispania - but being Roman trumped being from the provinces).
sigh
Damnit RNATB, apparently you’re right :p.
Leo Baekeland
Someone else. For better or worse the first to come to mind was King Leopold.
Marguerite Yourcenar was born in Belgium but left shortly thereafter.
Brel and Simenon were both Belgian, eh? I assumed they were French. How come Simenon invented a French detective, and it took an Englishwoman to invent a Belgian one?
Yeah. One more vote for Leopold. If he had been in the poll, would he be the leading candidate?
I’ve always liked Antoine-Joseph, aka Adolphe, Sax (1814 – 1894), born in Dinant in the south of Belgium – inventor of the saxophone. Also, according to Wiki, the saxotromba, saxhorn, and saxtuba.
My first thought was a group instead of a single person - Trappist monks.
Even thinking through the Congo and then getting stomped by invading Germans in both World Wars I couldn’t remember a single Belgian name. None of the names mentioned here I remembered as Belgian aside from Leopold.
Trappist monks, Final Answer. Even though I know not all the Trappist monasteries are in Belgium.
For students of the steam locomotive, Belgium is a place to reckon with – having been the native country of the following gentlemen.
Egide Walschaerts, who invented in 1844 the type of valve gear (mechanism to facilitate and regulate the flow of steam to the pistons) which is named after him. A very efficient lay-out for this purpose, but did not really catch on till the late 19th century – following on from which, it became the most-used type of steam loco valve gear worldwide.
Alfred Belpaire – invented in 1864, the Belpaire loco firebox; with a large surface area at the top, promoting effiicent heat transfer and steam production. Was widely used in steam locos built in many countries.
My first thought was Marc Dutroux… But of those listed, I’d probably go with Magritte.
Me, too, but I thought it was “Hervé.”
Never heard if the Von Romper Room guy. Gonna look him up right now.
Audrey Hepburn is a great answer – wish it had occurred to me! (Magritte as well).
Those are the first two that came to mind for me. I don’t expect this answer to be the same with the general public, but I’ve always enjoyed women’s tennis, and one of my my favorite eras was when those two were battling it out in the early-to-mid 2000s.
So is being born there enough to be Belgian? Can anyone answer that? Because I don’t think Hepburn actually claimed Belgian citizenship. She held British and Dutch passports, and possibly Italian as well, but I don’t think she ever held a Belgian passport.
Belgian TV viewers voted in 2005 on the Greatest Belgians:
There was a separate poll for viewers of the Dutch language channel, with different results:
Jean-Claude Van Damme. Obviously.
(I agree that Audrey Hepburn shouldn’t count as Belgian.)
Leopold II
As empress of this poll, I think that to be Belgian the requirements are a) to have been born after there was a country called “Belgium” and b) to have lived there and claimed citizenship.
On that front, Audrey Hepburn, Rubens and the Flemish painters are all out.
King Leo should probably have been in the poll, but I think van Damme would still lead if he was.