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Rushden Argus, 25th May 1917, transcribed by Kay Collins
A Belgian Wedding
Exiles Figure in a Happy Scene at Raunds

The wedding day
L-R: Madame Pffienschneider, Nonsieur Pffienschneider, Monsieur Jos. H. Desherhaut (bridegroom), Mademoiselle Mitge Vliegen (Bride), Madame Peters, Mademoiselle Alice Vliegen, and the two little nieces of the bride, Marguerite and Elsa Pffienschneider.

Though exiled from home, the Belgian refugees who are cared for at Raunds figured in a very happy ceremony the other day, when two of their number were wedded at the Roman Catholic Church, Rushden. The contracting parties were Monsieur Jean Joseph H. Desherhaut, Adjutant to the Belgian Army, of Choelinenn, Belgium, and Mademoiselle Mitge Vliegen, A Belgian refugee, of Antwerp.

The bridegroom has been in the Belgian Army from the first day of the outbreak of war, and was wounded in the defence of Antwerp, and brought to the hospital at Margate. In the early part of 1915 he visited Raunds to his fiancée on several occasions, and in August of the same year he went out to Africa and took part in the campaign in German East Africa. Having been invalided home for sickness, her returned to Raunds, and meantime accepted another post in the Belgian Government in Central Africa, whither he is shortly returning. The bride came to Raunds as a guest of the town after the bombardment of Antwerp in the autumn of 1914, and has resided there ever since, with the other members of the family shown in photograph.


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