Adolf Vanderschaeghe

Comments: Adolf and his wife Zoe lived in the Vanderschaeghe family home until 1970.
This house was built in 1847 by a nobleman.  A provision was made that it would be rented to the family, (originally Decorte), as long as someone in the family wanted it.

The following is from Grace Hall...
Adolph died a few months before our arrival but his wife was still living in the house.  He was given a patriot's funeral for his activities in the WWII underground. He also served in WWI and suffered through life from injuries from being gassed.

While in the Vanderschaeghe house, we were shown the room where they had contrived a concealed wall that made a sizeable closet that was accessible by ladder from the 3rd floor, where they hid downed pilots. This wall was an extension of the fireplace that had made a jog in the room and they had matching wallpaper. On the 3rd floor they kept a box of collected dust that would be sprinkled to cover any footprints.

I was told by one of the cousins of a particular episode when a flier had used a short wave radio to call England to indicate his position. The Gestapo had picked up the call and appeared at the house. Adolph had been digging potatoes and just had time to dig another hole in which he threw the radio equipment and covered it. If the radio had been discovered, Adolph would have been killed immediately.

The following is from Roel Struyve:
I was reading a book on World War II in the region Brugge and I stumbled upon this quote: "A regular meeting point between A. Coppieters 't Wallant and Van Poucke was the house of plantgrower Adolphe Vanderschaeghe in the neighbourhood De Schare in Ruddervoorde close to the hidingplace of "Boris" namely the castle "De Akker" of Adhémar de Boesinghe"
(notes: Col. Van Poucke was the leader of the "Secret Army" resistance group for the sector Brugge-Oostende.  Coppieters 't Wallant was his close assistant.  "Boris" was the alias of Van Poucke)

He served as a private in the 4th lineregiment.  He got 4 frontstripes (2 years of frontline duty) and would have gotten three medals: the Fire Cross, the WWI Commemorative Medal and the WWI Victory medal.  If you want to see (and read, the site's in English) what the medals are all about you can check this here:  http://users.skynet.be/hendrik/index.html