Archives of Eugène Colson

• Access and consultation: The fonds Eugène Colson can be accessed during the opening hours of the reading room. Its content is freely accessible. Reservation.
• Reproduction:  The content of the fonds can be reproduced freely in our reading room. For any information about requests for a document reproduction carried out by CegeSoma staff can be found here.
• Research instruments: Inventory AA1761

Archive fonds description :

Eugene "Harry" Colson was born in Charleroi in 1913. In 1940-1941, he made several trips as army captain to forward supplies (Armement Deppe) and later worked at the port of Antwerp. He then joined the underground intelligence service Bravery. He set up a resistance group for the ports sector, which later became the ‘ports’ section of the National Royalist Movement (Mouvement national royaliste/Nationale Koningsgezinde Beweging, MNR/NKB) whose main objective was to preserve the port. He fought in the liberation battles and went to the Netherlands together with Canadian troops.

After the liberation, Eugène Colson worked for the merchant navy again and became the national liquidator for MNR/NKB upon his return to Antwerp in 1973. He was dedicated to remind people and to commemorate the resistance of the MNR/NKB in Antwerp during the liberation and to preserving unity among the movement. In his function as national liquidato, was also in charge of the archives of his predecessor, general Graff, and of the postwar secretary of MNR/NKB, Berghmans. He died in Antwerp in 2000.

For more information :

• Bernard Henri, La Résistance 1940-1945, Bruxelles : La Renaissance du Livre, 1969.
• Le livre d’or de la résistance en Belgique, Bruxelles : M.D.N., 1948.
• Tanham George K., Contribution à l'histoire de la résistance belge, 1940-1944, Bruxelles : Presses universitaires de Bruxelles, 1971.