page_title: Hubert Pierlot
section_title: Exile government in London
hierarchical_section_title: Hubert Pierlot / As Prime Minister / Exile government in London
caption_attribution_description: English: Eaton Square, London SW1W Terrace to the north side of Eaton Terrace looking west. Part of the Grosvenor Estate in Belgravia.
context_page_description: Hubert Marie Eugène Pierlot was a Belgian politician and 32nd Prime Minister of Belgium, serving between 1939 and 1945. Pierlot, a lawyer and jurist, served in World War I before entering politics in the 1920s. A member of the Catholic Party, Pierlot became Prime Minister in 1939, shortly before Belgium entered World War II. In this capacity, he headed the Belgian government in exile, first from France and later Britain, while Belgium was under German occupation. During the German invasion of Belgium in May 1940, a violent disagreement broke out between Pierlot and King Leopold III over whether the King should follow the orders of his ministers and go into exile or surrender to the German Army. Pierlot considered Leopold's subsequent surrender a breach of the Constitution and encouraged the parliament to declare Leopold unfit to reign. The confrontation provoked a lasting animosity between Pierlot and other conservatives, who supported the King's position and considered the government's exile to be cowardly.
context_section_description: Shortly after his arrived in London, during the middle of the Blitz, Pierlot narrowly avoided being killed when the Carlton Hotel, where he was staying, was destroyed in bombing in November 1940. 
  The arrival of Pierlot and Spaak officially began the period of the "Government of Four" (Pierlot, Spaak, Gutt and De Vleeschauwer) which formed the core of the Belgian government in exile. Nonetheless, the Foreign Office distrusted Pierlot for not leaving France sooner. The Foreign Minister, Anthony Eden, is said to have remarked that "Pierlot is not impressive, but he is legitimate". Pierlot's status as the last elected Prime Minister did however provided sufficient legitimacy for the official government to undermine the Jaspar-Huysmans government in the eyes of the British government and achieve officially-approved status. 
  The government in exile received full diplomatic recognition from the Allied countries. The bulk of the Belgian government was installed in Eaton Square in the Belgravia area of London, which before the war had been the location of the Belgian Embassy. Other government departments were installed in nearby Hobart Place, Belgrave Square and in Knightsbridge. By May 1941, there were nearly 750 people working in the government in London in all capacities. The government in exile directed the formation of the Free Belgian Forces and was negotiated with the Resistance and other Allied governments. The government in exile also controlled much of Belgium's gold reserves, which had been evacuated before the defeat, which it loaned to the British and American governments. It was also involved in coordinating the war effort of the Belgian Congo which was an important source of raw materials, like uranium, to the Allies. From early in the war, the government was able to make contact with Leopold, through various intermediaries, but was unable to create a full reconciliation between the royal and Pierlot factions.
  On 28 April 1941, Pierlot's two eldest children were travelling to their boarding school when the train they were on caught fire near Westborough, Lincolnshire. Both were killed.
  Pierlot was one of the chief supporters of the Benelux Customs Union negotiated with both the Dutch and Luxembourgish governments in exile and signed in September 1944. Unlike Spaak, who was a staunch supporter of greater cooperation between states in Western Europe, Pierlot supported a transatlantic alliance with the United States to guarantee Belgian independence after the end of the war.
caption: View of Eaton Square in London, where the government in exile was based through much of the war
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