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Louis VANDENKERKHOVE :
The association has spent such energy in the renovation of the vandenkerkhove chapel in Volckerinckhove that we must not forget to ask about its founder.
Napoleon Joseph Louis Vandenkerkhove was born in Volckerinckhove at 8 p.m. on 15th. May 1805. (A year previously, 18th. May 1804, Bonaparte has been appointed Emperor by the senate, under the name of Napoleon 1st. This, without doubt, explains Louis’ first Christian name.)
Louis was the son of Jean Auguste Fortune Vandenkerkhove, stock-holder, and Jeanne Therese Peenaert. The witnesses were Philippe Vandenkerkhove, stock-holder and tax-collector at Bollezeele, and Guillaume (William) Delaplace, stock-holder at Watten.
Louis had a brother, two years older, called Hilaire Joseph, who became Mayor of Volckerinckhove. His mother died in 1807 and his father remarried 11 years later to Mlle Rosalie Cattyn, native of Noordpeene. She was an elderly spinster, 42 years old, who had given birth to a child on 30th. March 1811 at Volckerinckhove and whom Jean August Fortune was eager to have recognised by the evocative names of “Honore Desire Vandenkerkhove”.
Louis, it seems, never left his birthplace, and when his father died on 20th. June 1818 at the age of 68yrs., he lived alone without any money worries. His assets were plentiful, though essentially situated at Bollezeele, from where his family originated, (his ancesters were noblemen from Hamershil). The Vandenkerkhoves had for a long time been a distinguished local family. The maternal family was equally well-to-do. Among the long list of relatives most were stock-holders, property owners without a trade, living in the neighbourhood, as well as at Tourcoing or Conflans. Others, however, were merchants or manufacturers, a few were farmers. Another interesting fact is the number of priests and nuns descended from the family, scattered further afield in Spain, West Indies and Holland. Louis was truly pious. He helped the church, and, in particular, the poor and needy.
Nothing is known of his life, which one assumes was peaceful. He never married. His reason for living was to establish a retreat, an idea that may well have been influenced by his niece’s husband, the senior physician for the hospices in Calais. (Jules Warengham and his wife Zulmee Vandenkerkhove are buried at Volckerinckhove). Anyway, the venture was given such careful thought that it was a complete success.
Retreats were rare at this time, but so useful. They were simultaneously retreat, hospital and orphanage. Mr. Vandenkerkhove wanted his establishment to be public, not private, a fact that would make it easier later on, and chose Bollezeele as his starting point. In a letter to the municipal council he stated, “I do not feel obliged to give preference to the people of Bollezeele. Above all, I am led by the belief that its inhabitants will offer a warm and understanding welcome.” In concrete terms he owned estates that spread further into Bollezeele than into Volckerinckhove, and more particularly, one estate, measuring 8,000sq.m.with house and outbuildings, the whole valued at 20 000 francs. On 5th. October 1861, Louis gave the deeds to the town with the intention of establishing a hospice hospital, with instructions to receive and support forever, two people from Volckerinckhove (cost estimated at 300 francs a year.) This fee has since been changed into a payment of 30 cwt. Of com to the Communal Council for Social Assistance in Volckerinckhove.
In addition, all the sick people of Volckerinckhove who were assisted by the relief committee had to be made welcome for the duration of their illness at the price of 1F per day. The people of Bollezeele had the right to use half the land to build a school, so the hospice was not finally set up until March 1864.
The following day, 6th. October, the municipal Council of Bollezeele held a special meeting and accepted the gift. Immediately donations came flooding in. The sum of 800F was put in the hands of the parish priest to buy furniture. Other furniture and money was given, a nurseryman from Angers donated 200 fruit trees, and on 30th. November at Campiegne, Napoleon III signed the official authorisation for the opening.
The administrative council was formed and Louis sat on this : “We have great need of his advice.” A health officer was names and at the beginning of 1864, the first customers arrived.
Louis and his family continued to help the house. The widow of his brother (the old mayor of Volckerinckhove) donated 5 000F, one of his family gave 1 900F, Ms. Vitse of Paris (possibly another relative) the sum of 40 000F, Mr. Vandenkerkhove, himself, 17 000F on condition that another wing be built. In addition, he gave land valued at 37 152F, and finally, in his will, he left his house in Volckerinckhove together with furniture, jewellery… and land, estimated in total at 10 260F. All these amounts were quite considerable when compared to a teacher’s annual salary of 700 – 1 000F, and that the current maintenance cost of an old person was 22-30 centimes a day in a hospice.
Though his main preoccupation was the hospice, he never forgot his friends at Volckerinckhove. In his wills (made 3 and 5 years before his death), he bequeathed land (estimated at 13 500F) to the Volckerinckhove relief committee, 2 000F for the church restoration and purchase of windows. For his old “maid” Ms Julie Deblok, he set aside several pieces of furniture and annuity of 280F and a place at the hospice. Finally, he stipulated that the retreat must look after 2 people from Volckerinckhove. This last clause was to create some controversy after Louis’s death. In Volckerinckhove, they reckoned that 2+2 meant 4 poor people to be received. Another source confirmed that this was indeed Louis’ intentions. At Bollezeele, it was said to refer to only 2 people, and the sub-prefect found in favour of Bollezeele.
Louis died 25th. June 1888 at Volckerinckhove (aged 83) and was buried in the chapel which he’d had built several years earlier alongside the main street. He is commemorated by a plaque which hangs inside.
In peoples’ mind, Louis was thought of as a saint. Why else would they have named the retread “Saint Louis” had already appeared. What is more, it has been confirmed that when Louis’tomb was opened 100 years after his death, his body was still intact – a sign of saintliness. |
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