This memorial pays tribute to Walthère Dewé, who was the head of the White Lady Network. He was one of the most significant figures of the Belgian resistance.  Walthère Dewé was the Director of Telephones of Liège and head of the clandestine intelligence network “La Dame Blanche” or “The White Lady” during the First World War. He died in 1944, during the Second World War, while participating in a rescue operation of one of the members of his resistance network renamed “Clarence” at that time.

A colossal statue of the White Lady, with her finger over her mouth to symbolize the secrecy of the clandestine intelligence services, and a commemorative chapel pays tribute to this figure of the Belgian resistance.

Dewé was born on July 16, 1880, rue Coupée, in Thier in Liège, in the street where the monument to his memory is located.  A civil mining engineer from the University of Liège in 1904, an electrical engineer from the Montefiore Institute in 1905, Dewé, not content with his scientific training, applied himself to improving his knowledge in the human sciences by taking courses in psychology and morality at the faculty of philosophy and letters. Finally, in 1911 he obtained an additional diploma in applied mathematics! He then spent his entire career at the Telephone and Telegraph Authority.

A humanist impervious to intolerance, always expressing himself in a calm and measured tone and losing his temper in the face of injustice and bad faith, Walthère Dewé took over in 1916, with his friend Herman Chauvin, the direction of the clandestine intelligence network. La Dame Blanche, created by Dieudonné Lambrecht, shot by the Germans at the Chartreuse, April 18, 1916.

Dewé then found in his wife Dieudonnée Salmon an ideal collaborator who will always be at her husband's side in the most difficult circumstances. Four children were born from this happy union: Marie in 1907, Walthère in 1911, Madeleine in 1914 and Jacques in 1920.

With the cold intellectual method of the engineer and the implacable discipline that he imposed on himself and imposed, Walthère Dewé made this network a tool of remarkable efficiency which saved thousands of lives of the allied armies. The system, theoretically flawless, was based on maximum compartmentalization of the different participants in the network. The latter had 904 sworn members and 180 auxiliaries spread throughout Belgium.

As early as 1939, bringing together former members of La Dame Blanche, Walthère Dewé recreated an intelligence service, the Clarence network. As soon as he began his action in June 1940, he proclaimed to his collaborators: “England will stand alone as long as it is necessary. Sooner or later, the United States and the Soviet Union will be forced to intervene. The war will be very long. What does it matter! The greatness of the cause demands that we set no limits to our duty. Whatever happens, we will see it through to the end.”

Dewé then begins his life as an outlaw. He travels the country in all directions, hosted by reliable friends; he recruits agents, establishes contacts, develops the general organization of the service, which will extend from the coast to the redeemed countries.

Through Dewé's incessant activity and omnipresence, the enemy's grip tightens more and more on him. On January 7, 1944, his two daughters Marie and Madeleine were arrested. They will go to Ravensbrück from where Madeleine will not return.

On January 13, a telephone communication was intercepted by German wiretapping. There is talk of Thérèse de Radiguès and Dewé believes that a great danger threatens the latter. He decides to go to her house, avenue de la Couronne, in Ixelles, to ask her to quickly leave her house.

On January 14, he went to Thérèse de Radiguès. The secret police appear and arrest him. He manages to escape. A Luftwaffe officer, going up Rue de la Brasserie, blocked his way and fired at him. One year, to the day, after the death of his wife, one week after the arrest of his daughters, Walthère Dewé died.

On January 14, 1944, the Resistance lost its greatest leader. The most incredible thing about this drama is that the enemy didn't even know who had just died. Indeed, the German police never discovered the true identity of this Mr. Muraille...

Of Clarence's 1,547 agents, 47 fell in action. In Ixelles, rue de la Brasserie, a commemorative plaque is affixed to the facade of the house at the foot of which Dewé was shot.

Key dates

1880: Walthère Dewé was born in Liège on July 16.

1916: Dewé takes over the leadership of the clandestine intelligence network La Dame Blanche, created by Dieudonné Lambrecht, who was shot on April 18.

1940: He launches the Clarence network.

1943: Death of Dieudonnée Dewé, his wife. She was struck down by a heart attack at the age of 59.

1944: Arrest, on January 7, of his two daughters, Marie and Madeleine, both agents of the Clarence network

1944: Walthère Dewé loses his life trying to save a member of his network. He was shot dead in Brussels, a year to the day, after the death of his wife.