Paul Struye

Paul Struye was born in Ghent, Belgium in 1896, the son of Dr. Eugène Struye and Jenny Linon. He was educated at Sint-Barbaracollege. During World War I, in 1915, Struye was smuggled out of German-occupied Belgium to join the Belgian army in exile, but was declared ineligible for all but ancillary military duties. Eventually he wrote to Queen Elisabeth to request a transfer to the front, where he served as a stretcher bearer. In 1918, while still at the front, he sat a philosophy degree. In November 1918, he was wounded in action.

Between the wars, Struye joined the bar in Brussels and became a lawyer at the Court of Cassation by 1940. Alongside his legal practice he also wrote for the popular conservative newspaper La Libre Belgique from 1925 where he wrote a weekly column.

Under the German occupation between 1940 and 1944, Struye continued to practise as a lawyer. He began to keep a diary, recording his daily life. A royalist and Belgian patriot, he soon became involved in the Belgian Resistance, especially the La Libre Belgique of Peter Pan, an underground newspaper created in August 1940 which became one of the most prominent published during the period. Struye also keenly observed Belgian public opinion during the occupation and wrote regular reports on the subject for the Belgian government in exile.

In the first post-war elections in February 1946, Struye was elected as senator for the region of Brussels in the Christian Social Party (PSC-CVP). In March 1947, he was made Minister of Justice, responsible for the legal prosecution of former collaborators. He favoured a liberal approach towards sentencing, particularly in commuting death sentences, which was controversial. He resigned in November 1948. He took a pro-royalist stance during the Royal Question and a liberal stance in the Second Schools' War. He served two terms as President of the Senate between 1950-1954 and 1958-1973. He died in Ixelles on 16 February 1974.