Henri Carton de Wiart

Henry Victor Marie Ghislain, Count Carton de Wiart (31 January 1869 – 6 May 1951) was a Belgian writer and statesman who served as the Prime Minister of Belgium from 20 November 1920 to 16 December 1921.

Early life On 31 January 1869, Henry Carton de Wiart was born in Brussels into the aristocratic house of Carton de Wiart as the son of Diégo Benjamin Constant Carton de Wiart and Marie Clémence Jeanne Cammaerts. He was educated at Jesuit colleges in Aalst and Brussels and then studied philosophy at the Institut Saint-Louis in Brussels before entering the Faculty of Law at the Université libre de Bruxelles. While a student he spent some months in Paris, where he took courses at the Institut Catholique de Paris and the École des Sciences Politiques and attended Paul Brouardel's lectures on forensic medicine, and also at the University of Bonn, where he took a course in Sociology. In 1895 he was a co-founder of the newspaper La Justice sociale (Social Justice), which ran until 1902.

In 1896 Carton de Wiart was elected to the Belgian Chamber of Representatives as a left-wing member of the Catholic Party. He remained a Member of Parliament uninterruptedly until his death in 1951.

As a member of the Belgian government in exile during the First World War, he was particularly active to aid Belgian refugees and prisoners of war, and to publicise the Belgian cause internationally. When the war-time government resigned in November 1918, Carton de Wiart lost his ministry. He was appointed honorary Minister of State. From 1919 to 1920 he served as deputy speaker of the Chamber of Representatives, in 1919 also undertaking a diplomatic mission to The Hague to restore strained relations with the Netherlands.

After over a decade as a backbencher, Carton de Wiart returned to government in December 1932 as Minister of Social Welfare, serving until January 1934.

His books include: Contes hétéroclites (1892) La cité ardente (1905) Les vertus bourgeoises (1907) La Bourgeoisie belge depuis 1830 (1912) The Case of Belgium (New York, 1914) Mes vacances au Congo (1923) Mes vacances au Brésil (1928) Souvenirs littéraires (1938) Souvenirs politiques, 1878–1918 (1948) Chronique de la guerre froide, 1947-1949 (1950)

A second volume of Souvenirs politiques, incomplete at the time of his death, was published posthumously in 1981.

Honours Croix Civique, First Class Minister of State, by royal decree Grand Officer in the Order of Leopold, by royal decree of 13 November 1919 Grand Cordon in the Order of Leopold Knight Grand Cross in the Order of the Crown Foreign honours Knight Grand Cross in the Order of Saints Michael and George Knight Grand Cross in the Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus Grand Officer of the Order of Saint-Charles Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice A road in the municipality of Jette, in Brussels, is named in his honour: Avenue Carton de Wiart / Carton de Wiartlaan.