COUNT JOSEPH d'HESPEL 1875-1918

1910 Count d'Hespel and his Sommerplane Collection of Jean-Pierre Lauwers

 

1914 Brasschaet-Polygone - Le Caporal d'Hespel et son Monoplan d'Hespel with his Deperdussin. Collection of Jean-Pierre Lauwers

 

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES from Jean-Pierre Lauwers      During 1914, he served as commander of Military Aviation at St. Agatha Berchem (Brussels)      Probably because he was such a good patriot, and wanted to fight the Germans, he requested his "mutation" to active duty. He wanted somebody else to take his place at the "non dangerous" post.      That's why we couldn't trace him into the book about Military aviators of WWI anymore!      But by the outbreak of WWI , he volunteered indeed as "Military Aviator"! At the outbreak of WWI, several Belgian civilian pilots volunteered with their own planes to the Army Aviation section. Included were Count d'Hespel, Jan Olieslagers with his Bleriot XI, Crombez with his "Deperdussin and several others.      Count d'Hespel: "killed in action", October 1918 at Poelkapelle battle, as cavalry officer!

 

ONLINE RESOURCES      If you use the Google search engine on Joseph d'Hespel, (1-9-06), you will find about 33 links.

The Aerodrome Forum: count d'Hespel      This forum offers an extensive and very helpful discussion of count d'Hespel and provides a wealth of information to the WW I fan. You may well want to participate in this discussion. You can access the page by clicking on the title above.

Ville de Bruxelles Meeting d'Aviation       This page on the BAHA website offers a brief mention of d'Hespel, who was among the many pioneer aviators who participated in this meeting. I think you will especially enjoy the photographs which come from the Jean Pierre Lauwers collection. You can access the page by clicking on the title above.

 

REQUEST FOR HELP via email from Mike Hespel, 1-9-06 Beste naamgenoot, Ik ben bezig met de stamboom van de familie Hespel op te maken, en vraag hierbij of het mogelijk zou zijn mij alle beschikbare gegevens door te sturen van uw tak. Of misschien nog beter u kent iemand die daar ook mee bezig is, dan kunnen wij eventueel gegevens uitwisselen. Ikzelf ben Nederlandstalig, als het kan te reageren in het Nederlands je kan ook reageren in het Engels of het Frans. Hopend zo spoedig mogelijk een reactie van u te mogen verwachten groet ik u. Hespel Mike Akkerwindestraat 24 B-8560 Wevelgem Mail via RalfEnglish Translation Courtesy of Dave Lam, 1-9-06 Dear namesake, I am working to develop the family tree of the family Hespel, and request by this (e-mail) if it would be possible for you to forward to me all available data concerning your branch. Or even better, perhaps you know someone who is also working with that, then we can possibly exchange data. I am Dutch-speaking, and thus can be responded to in Dutch, English or French. Hoping for a response from you as soon as possible My coördinates are: Hespel Mike Akkerwindestraat 24 B-8560 Wevelgem Mail your data to Ralf Editor's Note: If you can help Mike with his research, I will be happy to forward your message to him. Also, if you can offer a better translation of his request from Dutch into English, I will replace the machine-translation. Thank you.

 

Count d'Hespel: "killed in action", October 1918 Email from Jean-Pierre Lauwers   Editor's Note: If you have any information on this pioneer aviator please contact me. E-mail to Ralph Cooper

 

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