One young soldier stationed in Luton who was looking forward to getting to Belgium to do his bit in defeating the Germans had already spent three months escaping from occupied Brussels so that he could enlist in England and return to fight. This is the first part of his dramatic story.

Private Cyril Bunyan enlisted with the North Midland Royal Field Artillery on the first day after he reached England at the end of his hazardous journey from Brussels. His family, who had also escaped, had been established in Belgium before the German invasion, and he had been able already to provide valuable information about conditions in the Belgian capital to War Office officials while crossing on a boat from Holland.

In an exclusive interview with The Luton News, Pte Bunyan said: "My father is Charles Bunyan, the old Derby County, Walsall and Chesterfield goalkeeper, and for the last five-and-a-half years he has been football coach to the Racing Club de Bruxelles. My brother Maurice has held engagements under the Chelsea and Everton Football Clubs, but is now in the Royal Marines stationed at Gosport. I was a traveller in Belgium for a Market Harborough firm of manufacturers and lived with my parents in Ixelles, one of the districts of Brussels.

"Before the Germans arrived we were constantly buoyed up with the hope that the armies of the Allies would stem the rush of the Germans, and that there would be no necessity for us to leave the Belgian capital. But our hopes were dashed to the ground when Namur fell, and the advanced sections of the German troops marched into Brussels.

"It was about nine o'clock in the morning and I was one of the sorrowful few to witness their approach and entry into the city. There was no fighting in Brussels, the nearest place that was contested being Vilworde [Vilvoorde], some five miles distant.

"At first we English were not in danger, but immediately the arrests of German suspects began in England the Germans began to hunt up all Englishmen between the ages of 15 and 55 in Brussels. My father, myself and two brothers immediately left home - for my mother was safe - and went to different parts of the district. My father and brothers fortunately managed to make their escape in the comparatively early days, but for three months I was in hiding and eventually managed to break through the German lines and cross the border into Holland.

"Before this, however, I saw a good deal of life under German rule in Brussels. This privilege, or misfortune, was probably due to the fact that I speak both French and Flemish fairly fluently and, being accepted in a Belgian family, I managed to pass muster as a non-combatant Belgian.

"Everybody is aware that Belgium is now completely under German rule and Brussels, after the entry of the German troops, was speedily under German control. The German flag fluttered over all the public buildings, and the Post Office, banks etc were under German administration.

"The place was overrun with German spies, and it was quite impossible for Englishmen, Frenchmen or combatant Belgians to visit their homes without being caught. We saw prisoners of all three nations pass through Brussels on their way to Germany, and some idea of the hatred of the Germans for England and the English may be gathered when I tell you of the cruel and inhuman treatment of the English prisoners.

"They were confined in cattle trucks, as many as 25 in a truck, and in some instances were kept there for four days without being allowed to descend for any purpose whatever. Their hands were tied together, and they were suffering agonies from hunger and exposure. Their warm clothing, such as cardigan jackets, had been taken from them, and they were treated with a barbarity and cruelty painful to witness. The captured English doctors had their Red Cross badges torn from their uniform and were treated just as ordinary infantry.

"The French and Belgian prisoners received vastly different treatment. The German sentries, provided they received similar treatment, allowed the people to hand these prisoners chocolates, sweets, cakes and cigarettes, but on no account was anyone allowed to approach the English prisoners or make them presents of any description, the warning being emphasised in the threatening presentation of a bayonet. Such is the glory of German 'kultur'.

"The Belges are quite unable to assimilate this 'kultur', and when one has experienced German domination such as obtains in Brussels it is not to be wondered at. The Belges hate the Germans, and would as lief smash a German as look at him now.

"Among other things ordered by the Germans was that of putting the hands of the clock forward one hour, so that the time should synchronise with that of Germany. Belgian money has practically disappeared, German paper money being almost wholly in circulation. German postage stamps - I have one with the words 'Belgien 3 centimes' printed thereon - are in use, and the Belges have to do police service, night duty, so many times a week or pay a fine of three francs.

"Again attempts are made to intimidate the people and to keep them in awe in divers ways. One way is to impress upon them the power of the all-conquering German army by means of posters giving details of victories on land and sea. One poster was printed in German, three days later it appeared again but in French, and the third time it appeared in Flemish. This was too much for Belgian credulity, and the posters became a laughing stock.
"When the German vessel, a cruiser, I believe, named the Yorck, was sunk in the North Sea, a poster announced that a big vessel named the York had been sunk, obviously intending to imply that it was a British battleship named after the English city. Neither the nationality, the cause of the disaster, not any other detail as added. Similar matters could be multiplied a hundredfold.

"The boys of Brussels are registered and have to report twice a week, and if they are missing the parents are severely dealt with. The Civil Guards, who were non-combatants and have taken no active part in the war, have to register every week at the Ecole Militaire.

"There were about 120 Englishmen between the ages of 15 and 55 under detention. They were given each morning a certain amount of coffee and half a loaf of bread, at dinner time one plate of soup, and at night a few potatoes only. War bread was in vogue, and it is vile stuff; it made hundreds of people seriously ill.

"They were allowed to buy other things if they had the money, but the permission was a mockery, for they had no means. Their accounts at the bank were closed, and they could not get any money at all. They were afterwards sent to Germany in two batches.

"A number of English nurses were promised that they should be sent home, but after twice being entrained they were brought back again, and the third time they were brought back because there was an error, according to the Germans, in the names given in.

"When the Germans first arrive in Brussels their aeroplanes appeal to be as plentiful as flies, but they were only rarely seen when I left. There was a Zeppelin shed near a church, and one day an English aviator defied the presence of an anti-aircraft gun which was stationed on the waterworks tower, and he hovered over the spot and dropped a bomb. Unfortunately, he missed his object and the bomb fell into the churchyard. It tore up a vault like paper, making a great hole in the earth and smashing all the glass for some distance."

[The following weekend's edition of the Beds & Herts Saturday Telegraph said that although Pte Bunyan's family were brought up in Derbyshire, his roots were in Bedfordshire. The oldest living member of that branch of the family was his grandmother, who was now living in Chesterfield.]

[Source: The Luton News, February 18th, 1915]

[Photo source: Belgian Tourist Office]