Louis Charles Jérôme Gonne was born in Braives in 1860 and died in Liège, the 10 april 1932.
He is the son of Maximilien Joseph Gonne, respected engineer from Hesbaye and director of a company specializing in engine construction in Waremme, and Christine Esser, housewife, originally from Germany.
Louis Gonne grew up in a wealthy environment allowing him to follow a university education. After his studies, he decides to enroll at the University of Liège, where he obtained a doctorate in law in the early years 1880.
After successful completion of his studies, he registers as a lawyer with the Liège bar. After ten years, he combines his work as a lawyer with the functions of deputy judge at the Court of First Instance of Liège to which he was appointed on 12 may 1892, replacing his father-in-law.
He left the bar on 16 june 1893 to integrate the effective judiciary, as substitute for the King's Prosecutor at the Court of First Instance of Namur, replacing Stellingwerff. He is promoted, the 8 october 1896, to the position of deputy of the King's Prosecutor at the Court of First Instance of Liège before taking charge of the Hasselt public prosecutor's office, the 14 february 1903. This function constitutes a springboard, which allows Louis Gonne to be appointed to the position of Director General of the Second General Directorate : Prisons and public safety, at the Ministry of Justice. This appointment takes place on 22 December 1906, replacing Jean Baptiste De Rode. He will hold this position until his resignation in March. 1927. He continued to hold his post during the First World War but experienced a loss of influence in favor ofAlfred Rémy, his successor as Managing Director.
When registering with the Liège bar, he joined the Conference of the Young Bar of Liège created in 1861. This Conference allows young lawyers to integrate into the bar, to train continuously, to represent the bar in Belgium or abroad and to create a certain form of conviviality. During the year 1895, he also became a member of the Royal Commission on Patronages, a national institution, falling within the framework of social defense.
His position as State Security administrator, allows him to establish political ties with his supervisory ministers, in this case the Ministers of Justice, of the Interior and Foreign Affairs. These ministers are mainly of Catholic obedience. Gonne positions himself as a central figure on the protocol level. He accompanies the government on diplomatic trips and is invited to private festivities organized by members of the government but also by ambassadors or by members of foreign cabinets..
Louis Gonne does not produce a large number of works but an article can nevertheless be identified : “Anti-Semitic Unrest in Germany”, in General Review of Belgium, 1881.
Louis Gonne during his last years at the Liège bar and his first years in the Belgian judiciary also devoted himself to his family. Indeed, he married Augusta Marie Thérèse Joséphine Vandenberg, in Liège on 2 september 1884, and becomes the father of two daughters : Christine Hortense Louise, born on 13 july 1885, and Jeanne Augusta Marie Henriette, born on 28 april 1888.
Louis Gonne grew up with siblings : the eldest is Louis Charles Jérôme Gonne and the youngest is Ferdinand Gonne, born in 1862. The latter, also a lawyer, is a leading member of the Belgian Catholic Party, leader of the canton of Huy.
Sources:
- “Documents jointly signed by De Rode and Gonne, february 1920 », Archives générales du Royaume, Archives of the Ministry of Justice. General Secretariat. Files of magistrates and ministerial officers. Series I. Supplement (1830-1962), n° 267.
- “Organization of the Robermont cemetery in Liège, 1935 », Archives of the City of Liège.
- Xavier ROUSSEAUX and David SOMER, For a history of State Security in Belgium. Test around 175 twilight years, Brussels, 2005.
- The main regional and national newspapers in Belgium were also consulted, to be precise : The Meuse, The Last Hour, l’Belgian independence, The People, the Charleroi Gazette, the Brussels Journal.
Florian Rorive
Notice written as part of the Seminar on the History of the Contemporary Period of the Catholic University of Louvain (LHIST2280, teacher Emmanuel Debruyne).
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