The Boy Boelcke saved from drowning
On August 28, 1915, Oswald
Boelcke rescued a French boy from drowning in a channel. Because Boelcke
had mentionned in his letter to his parents that he had received a letter
from the families Delplace and Dutercq to thank him for rescuing a boy
called Albert, age 14, I wrote mail to the contact address of the City of
Douai (www.douai.fr) to ask for
assistance in finding relatives of the boy who might still live today. In
answer to my mail I got the name of a person who might have been the boy
rescued by Oswald Boelcke. Miss Anne-José Petitjean at the Archives
Municipales de Douai found a person listed in the decennial tables as:
Albert Clément Germain François Delplace
born: April 29, 1900
died: April 8, 1919
name of his father: François Deplace
name of his mother: Marie Louise Dutercq
This matches the information given by Oswald Boelcke so there are very
good chances that this boy was the same Albert Delplace rescued by
Boelcke. However, doubts always remain because it is very hard if not
impossible to cross check the information. It would be perfect to find a
living relative who maybe remembers to boy and the story. Also it would be
interesting to find the reason for the early death of the boy. Was it the
Spanish Flu, or maybe another accident? Or did the boy just die in result
of the bad conditions of life between 1914 and 1918, as shortages made it
impossible for the civilians to have what we call today a "balanced
nutrition"? Many children suffered from the lack of vitamines and
many had to starve. Boelcke mentionned in another letter that the boy fell
into the channel because he was dwindeling, which might be taken as a
possible indication of a bad condition of health.
With many thanks to Miss
Anne-José Petitjean from the Archives Municipales de Douai for her
kind help to find an answer to this question.
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