Léon Trulin

Life

Léon Trulin was born in Ath, Belgium, on 2 June 1897, the second to last of eight children. His father was a plumber and his mother a worker in the fur industry. After his father died at age 43, the family moved to La Madeleine, then Lille. Raised Catholic, Trulin attended non-religious schools: Victor Hugo in La Madeleine and Monge in Lille.

In June 1910, to help his family overcome poverty, he was hired as an apprentice in a fur factory. A work accident left him recovering for eight months, during which he read intensively and gained cultural literacy rare for a worker. After healing, he found a job in a metal factory, studied touch typing at night, and became an employee at the school of Beaux-Arts. In the summer of 1914, World War I began.

In June 1915, Trulin went to England to join the Belgian army but was rejected due to his sickly appearance. He then accepted spying missions to northern France. With his friend Raymond Derain, he created the network "Noël Lurtin" (an anagram of his own name) or Léon 143, collecting information from Ath to Brussels, from Antwerp to the Dutch border. On the night of 3–4 October 1915, while crossing the Wire of Death near Putte, Kapellen, they were arrested by a German patrol.

Trulin was held in cell 176 at the Béguines jail in Antwerp from 4 to 12 October, then transferred to the Citadel of Lille. In November 1915, after a short hearing at the German military court set up in the offices of the newspaper La Dépêche, Trulin, Marcel Gotti, and Raymond Derain were sentenced to death and loss of civil rights. The verdict was ratified by General von Heinrich, who confirmed Trulin's death sentence without pardon. When informed, Trulin said, "I did it for my country."

He wrote in his notebook: "On 7 November 1915, at 4:10 am, French time, received death sentence around 3:1/4 am" and below: "I die for my country and without regrets. Simply I am very sad for my dear mother and my brothers and sisters who will suffer from this fate without being guilty." On 8 November, in the ditches of the Citadel, Trulin was executed.

Memories

Four monuments, including three statues, recall Trulin's memory in Lille. A statue by Félix-Alexandre Desruelles is part of the group statue 'Les Fusillés lillois' at square Daubenton, unveiled on 31 March 1929. A statue by Edgar-Henri Boutry was unveiled in 1934 on the 'peuple belge' avenue and moved in 2003 to Léon Trulin street. An inscription with large metal letters and a memorial plaque marks the execution site on the north wall of the citadel, with golden letters on a concrete background: 'Here Leon Trulin died as a hero on 8 November 1915 at the age of 18 I forgive everybody, friends and enemies, last letter to his mother.' A statue by Félix-Alexandre Desruelles also stands at cimetière de l'Est (Lille), allée K7.