Cammaerts , Emile , 1878-1953 , poet and academic

Emile Cammaerts was born in Brussels in 1876 (he was baptised Emile Pieter at the age of 34). He received education at the University of Brussels and later at the revolutionary Université Nouvelle where he was a student of geography.

Cammaerts held the post of Professor of Belgian Studies and Institutions in the University of London, 1931-47, and became Professor Emeritus after his retirement from the university in 1947. He also received an honorary LL.D. from the University of Glasgow and a CBE. He was a fellow of the Royal Historical Society.

During his life, Emile Cammaerts was a cartographer, geographer, journalist, poet, playwright, historian, art critic and devoted Anglican. He was Belgian by nationality, and deeply immersed in Belgian politics and culture, but after his marriage he spent his life in England, at Radlett, Hertfordshire, from where he commuted to his office in London. He was naturally concerned with Anglo-Belgian relations and with the Anglo-Belgian Union.