Tuesday 17 August 2021

Passport Portraits of Yesteryear no. 50

Continuing the series of passport portraits in my collection.
Peruse and wonder.

The Great War has started, the British Expeditionary Force in Belgium is being forced back into France by the assault and the Kentish Channel ports are flooded with refugees.
    Folkestone is awash with Belgians who have fled before the foe and sought safety in Britain, but how do we distinguish real refugees from the possible spies which might have been infiltrated into the throngs of desperate humanity?
    The answer is to engage Belgian police staff to attend the pier at Folkestone and interview any suspects as they disembark. Ernest Godefroy is a forty year old Belgian detective whose job it now is to meet the ship from Ostend every day and make himself available to the Immigration and Security staff  working there. He has taken lodgings in Harvey Street, only a few minutes walk from the port.