‘Our Courageous Disabled’

On 20 June 1920, Watermael-Boisfort celebrated its heroes. Symbols of self-sacrifice, the disabled of the municipality sat in the forefront. Despite the construction of monuments, the memory of war was especially strong on a local scale. All the municipalities dedicated specific monuments to the “their” victims.

This local memory was also expressed in names of streets. A street in Uccle was named after Edith Cavell, the nurse who had worked there and had been shot in 1916. Through the toponymy, the municipalities also boasted the place they held during the occupation. In November 1918, the municipality of Brussels voted for the creation of a Boulevard Adolphe Max, after its emblematic mayor. The year after, Ixelles also named an avenue after its patriotic deputy Adolphe Buyl.