Albert de Vleeschauwer

Baron Albert de Vleeschauwer van Braekel (1 January 1897, Nederbrakel - 24 February 1971, Kortenberg) was a Belgian politician of the Catholic Party.

De Vleeschauwer served as Catholic deputy for the Leuven area from 1932 until 1960. He was Minister of the Colonies from March 1938 to February 1945 (briefly interrupted in 1939). During World War II, he served also served as Minister of Justice (October 1940-October 1942) and Minister of Public Education (October 1942-September 1944) in addition, as part of the Belgian government in exile. After the war he served as Minister of the Interior from 1949–50 and Minister of Agriculture from 1958-60.

Albert de Vleeschauwer joined the Belgian Army straight from school in 1916. After the war he took both a law degree and a degree in philosophy at the University of Louvain. He became a lawyer in 1924 and also joined the research department of the Boerenbond, the Catholic Farmers' Union. In 1926 he became its head and in 1928 was appointed lecturer at the University’s Agricultural Department. He served as chef de cabinet to Hendrik Baels, the Minister of Agriculture, in 1929-1930 and began his political career in 1932 when he was elected member of parliament for Leuven. He had an outspoken Christian democrat profile as one of the founders of the Katholieke Vlaamsche Volkspartij in 1936 . In May 1938 he joins Paul-Henri Spaak’s tripartite coalition government, replacing his colleague Edmond Rubens after the latter’s unexpected death.

After the German invasion of Belgium in May 1940, the most of the Belgian government fled to Paris and Limoges while the Colonial Ministry went straight to Bordeaux. On June 15 the Belgian cabinet decided to continue the war in Britain but did not carry out its decision. Instead it followed the French government to Bordeaux. In a cabinet meeting on June 18, the three ministers expressed the desire to flee to London to continue the war: Camille Gutt, Albert de Vleeschauwer and Marcel-Henri Jaspar. Jaspar left for London that very day, without the consent of his colleagues and was officially thrown out of the cabinet.

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