Father Jean Desonay
was born in Soumagne on the 9th of August 1886. At the outbreak of the
war he was a professor at the Jesuit collège Saint-Servais in Liège. In
1914, as he would do in 1939, Jean Desonay was involved as an agent from day one.
activities at the outbreak of the war were not limited to his
membership in the intelligence gathering network “réseau Lambrecht” but
he was also involved in with underground press, smuggling letters from
occupied Belgium to the Belgian soldiers fighting with the allies as
well as helping people escape from occupied Belgium.
Left: Father Jean Desonay after his return from captivity
Lambrecht was a Belgian civilian who set up a network of agents who
amongst other things monitered German Railway movements. The information
was of great use to the Allied High command and was communicated via
neutral Holland. Lambrecht was betrayed, tried then executed in April
1916. 3 000 people attended his Funeral.
Lambrecht's network was taken over by his cousin, Walthère Dewé. Along with the Jesuit Priest Jean Desonay
(who had been one of Lambrecht’s right hand men) and an engineer named
Chauvin he set out to rebuild and improve the organization. He renamed
it “La Dame Blanche” based on a German legend that the appearance of a
woman wearing white would signal the collapse of Hohenzollern.
organized the réseau along Military lines with battalions, companies,
and independant cells. There were groups responsible for observing
German troop movements by rail, by road and for transmissions. The
betrayal of Lambrecht to the Germans had taught them the value of
secrecy within the network and the cell system would mean that agents
would not be able to betray the network.
Father (père) Desonay (Code name “Commandant Belleflamme” ) was betrayed and arrested on the 14th of June 1917. The Police knocked on the door of his classroom but were persuaded to let him finish his lesson. Desonay
used the time to give a student his papers, including secret
communiques. The student passed the documents on to the head of the
school. Desonay was interrogated
numerous times but the Germans were not able to establish his guilt.
While other members of networks were executed or condemned to do forced
labor, Desonay was sent to a camp for “undesirables” near Holzminden.
At the time of his arrest the most important work of the réseau la Dame Blanche was still to come but Desonay had been instrumental in organizing the network with its over 1 000 agents.
British War office was to commend the members of the Dame Blanche
crediting them with having reported 70% of the intelligence that the
Allies received from occupied and neutral countries. Douglas Haig
claimed the information received was essential for planning his
Above: British war medal named to "J. DES ONAY."
On the 3rd of September 1939 Walthère Dewé assembled his “old Guard” … Chauvin, Desonay
etc. and reactivated the Dame Blanche Network… The network would carry
out sterling work throughout the war relaying information back to
London. Walthère Dewé was killed by a German officer in 1944.
Left: Father Desonay after his arrival in London, 1944
It was decided that Father Desonay’s
WW1 service was known to the Germans and he was considered to be too
well known to operate effectively in Belgium. He was sent to the Vichy
“Free Zone” in Southern France where he was involved with escape
networks for Allied Aircrews evading after being shot down over Europe.
Using the Nom de Guerre “Pere de Fromenteau” his cover was as a teacher
at the Jesuit college du Caousou in Toulouse. He operated here until he
was once again betrayed and then had to flee across the mountains into
Spain. After a while in Portugal he made his way to England where he
spent the rest of the War. He returned to Belgium after the war where he
died in 1948.
his other medals he was awarded the Order of the British Empire, The
French Croix de Guerre with Palm, British War Medal, Medaille
Commemorative de la Guerre 1914 – 1918 avec Couronne de Volontaire,
Medaille de la Victoire, Medaille de la Reconnaissance Nationale,
prisonnier Politique 1914-1918.