A public lecture is being held on the Welsh response to the Belgian refugee crisis in the First World War.

The Wales for Peace Together event will take place on 17 February at 6pm in the main Hall of Aberystwyth University International Politics Department.

The public and academics are invited to explore the astonishing achievement of hosting around 250,000 Belgian refugees in the UK.

More than 4,500 Belgian refugees came to Wales during World War One, leaving again by 1919 with very little trace, apart from art, craft and building work still valued in Wales today.

The guest speaker, UCL lecturer Christophe Declercq, has researched the Belgian refugees story for over a decade and is the UK liaison officer for a project currently organized by the Amsab Institute of Social History, affiliated to the University of Ghent, Belgium.

He said: “Reflecting on the past to illuminate the present is what history is all about. This Belgian-Wales sharing of information will enhance our understanding of the Belgian Refugees’ story during World War One, in the context of a new refugee crisis emerging in Europe a 100 years later.

“I was very pleased to respond to this opportunity to share my research through the Wales for Peace project, at Aberystwyth University’s International Politics Department.”

He added: “The sojourn in Britain of about a quarter of a million Belgians has long been overlooked. The reasons for this are many. Most importantly, the Belgians came as imperceptibly as they went. By mid-1919 virtually all had returned to Belgium. They first arrived when Germany invaded Belgium on 4th August 1914 and Britain declared war on Germany.

“The following weeks, fierce fighting across Belgian territory created a mass movement of civilians, which came to a halt with the fall of Ostend (15 October) and the First Battle of Ypres (19 October – 22 November). In fact, in the early autumn of 1914 nearly one in three Belgians sought refuge from the war.”

The lecture coincides with the Wales for Peace Remembering for Peace exhibition at the National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth.