Henri Denis

Henri Jean Charles Eugène Denis (10 September 1877 – 19 January 1957) was a lieutenant general in the Belgian Army who served as Minister of National Defence at the beginning of the Second World War.

[1] On 22 October 1914 he was removed from active duty after an accident and attached to the Ministry of War in the Belgian government in exile at Le Havre.

In February 1917 he was appointed commissioner of the military railways, becoming a logistics specialist, and he was promoted to major on 26 September the same year.

[1] Denis was appointed Minister of National Defence in the government that took office under Paul-Emile Janson on 23 November 1937, and retained the position in the administrations headed by Paul-Henri Spaak and Hubert Pierlot in the run-up to the Second World War.

He himself, aged 63, resigned from the Belgian government in exile when it relocated to London in October 1940, opting to remain in retirement in Vichy France.

Leopold III and General Denis (right) inspect armoured vehicles. From L'Illustration , no. 5072, 18 May 1940.