Léo Pétillon
Léo Pétillon | |
|---|---|
Alfred Claeys-Boúúaert | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Léon Antoine Marie Pétillon 22 May 1903 Province of Liège, Belgium |
| Died | 1 April 1996 (aged 92) Ixelles, Brussels, Belgium |
Léo Pétillon (22 May 1903 – 1 April 1996) was a
Governor-General of the Belgian Congo (1952–58) and, briefly, as Minister of the Belgian Congo and Ruanda-Urundi
(1958).
Pétillon studied
technocrat in the government of Gaston Eyskens
. He retired in 1959 and published several books. He died in 1996.
Biography
Léon "Léo" Pétillon was born in
Albert de Vleeschauwer. In this capacity he supervised the creation of the Colonial Lottery in 1934.[1]
In February 1939, Pétillon asked to be posted to the
Belgium was invaded by Germany. Despite being posted as De Vleeschauwer's chef de cabinet with the Belgian government in exile in London, Pétillon spent most of World War II in the Congo. After the Liberation of Belgium in September 1944, Pétillon played a major role in re-establishing relations between the colonial administration in Africa and the Ministry of the Colonies.[3]
In October 1946, he was promoted to Vice Governor-General as the deputy for the new Governor-General
King Baudouin to the Congo in 1955 and worked on plans to create a "Belgian-Congolese Community" which would bring Belgians and Congolese into a more egalitarian relationship. His term also saw the first stirrings of anticolonial nationalism in the colony.[5] In 1958, he was replaced by the Congo's final Governor-General, Hendrik Cornelis.[5]
In 1958, Pétillon himself became
Christian Social Party minority government of Gaston Eyskens and started work on a project of colonial reform.[5] He was the first individual to have personally presided over both colonial administrative and ministerial roles. In November, however, Eyskens brought the Liberals into the coalition and Maurice Van Hemelrijck replaced Pétillon as minister. He was retained in the ministry until the completion the report of the working group that he had created in December 1958.[5]
Pétillon retired in 1959, working on a number of memoires in the following years. He was a member of the Royal Academy for Overseas Sciences.[5]
Publications
- Témoignage et réflexions (Brussels: La Renaissance du Livre, 1967).
- Courts métrages africains. Pour servir à l'histoire (Brussels: La Renaissance du Livre, 1979).
- Récit. Congo 1929-1958 (Brussels: La Renaissance du Livre, 1985).
References
- ^ a b c Biographie nationale 2001, p. 307.
- ^ a b Biographie nationale 2001, p. 308.
- ^ Biographie nationale 2001, pp. 308–9.
- ^ a b Biographie nationale 2001, p. 309.
- ^ a b c d e Biographie nationale 2001, p. 310.
Bibliography
"Pétillon, Léo" (PDF). Nouvelle Biographie Nationale. Vol. 6. Brussels: Royal Academy of Science, Letters and Fine Arts of Belgium. 2001. pp. 307–10.
Further reading
- Stenmans, Alain; Reyntjen, Filip (1993). La pensée politique du gouverneur général Pétillon (PDF). Brussels: Académie royale des Sciences d'Outre-mer. OCLC 494273131.
- .
