The Times/1929/Letter to the Editor/Obituary: George William Thomson Omond

MR. G. W. T. OMOND

M. Emile Cammaerts writes:—

May I draw attention to the invaludable services which Mr. G. W. T. Omond rendered to Anglo-Belgian relations? He had a genuine affection for Belgium which rested on a longstanding knowledge of the country, its people and its history. Besides the work on "Belgium and Luxemburg," which you mentioned in your obituary notice, he published a book of general information: "Belgium" (1928), and a number of review and newspaper articles on Belgian questions. He belonged to a small group of writers and journalists who were, I believe, the first Englishman who entered Antwerp after the Armistice, and, on this occasion, witnessed a spontaneous demonstration of friendship for England, which he was wont to recall with particular pleasure. Mr. Omond will be gratefully remembered by many Belgians, not only for his kind and genial personality, but for his disinterested and sympathetic understanding of their difficulties, and of their efforts to overcome them. I feel that in expressing my own feelings of deep regret I am also conveying the genuine sorrow which his loss will cause to many of my compatriots.