Victor de Laveleye

Victor Auguste de Laveleye (6 November 1894 – 14 December 1945) was a Belgian liberal politician and minister, as well as an Olympic tennis player. He also served as announcer on Radio Belgique during World War II.

De Laveleye was a doctor in law, and was municipality Council member of Sint-Gillis, President of the Liberal Party (1936–1937) and Liberal member of parliament (1939–1945) for the district Brussels. De Laveleye was minister of justice (1937) and of public education (1944–1945). During World War II, he was a newsreader for Radio Belgique, a BBC station transmitted to occupied Belgium.

Biography Victor de Laveleye was born in Brussels on 6 November 1894. He was the son of Auguste-Albert and Emma Lynen, who belonged to a well-known liberal family in Antwerp. He also was a great nephew of the Liege professor Émile Louis Victor de Laveleye. He studied law at the Free University of Brussels (ULB) and became a lawyer at the Brussels Court of Appeal.

In 1926, he became a municipal councilor in Saint-Gilles, Brussels. He also gave lectures at the ULB and was a reporter at the Liberal Congress in 1932. He became a member of parliament, chairman of the Liberal Party (1936–1937), and for a few months Minister of Justice in Paul Van Zeeland's second government (1937).

Later life After the liberation, Victor de Laveleye became Minister of Public Education in the governments of Pierlot V and VI, which lasted only five months (September 1944 – February 1945). He was already ill and on 16 December 1945, being 51 years old, he died. He was nephew of Baron Edouard de Laveleye, chairman of the Belgian Olympic Committee.