Hector Carlier (1884 – 1 January 1946 in

Kalmthout Kalmthout () is a municipality in the Belgian province of Antwerp. The municipality comprises the villages of Kalmthout, Achterbroek, Heide, and Nieuwmoer. In 2021, Kalmthout had a population of 19,020. The total area is . In addition to Kalmth ...

) was a Belgian

banker A bank is a financial institution that accepts deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital markets. Becaus ...

and industrialist who was the son of banker Jean Baptist Ferdinand Carlier and Marie de Roy. He was married with Amelia Goossens and together they had three children. He is one of the founders of the

Belgian Belgian may refer to: * Something of, or related to, Belgium * Belgians, people from Belgium or of Belgian descent * Languages of Belgium, languages spoken in Belgium, such as Dutch, French, and German *Ancient Belgian language, an extinct languag ...

oil company

Petrofina Petrofina was a Belgian oil company. It merged with Total in 1999 to form TotalFina, which after subsequent mergers has changed its name back to Total. In the United States, Fina's former refining and marketing operations are now owned by De ...

. Petrofina merged with Total of

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

to form ''TotalFina'' and with

Elf Aquitaine Elf Aquitaine is a French brand of oils and other motor products (such as brake fluids) for automobiles and trucks. Elf is a former petroleum company which merged with TotalFina to form "TotalFinaElf". The new company changed its name to Total ...

in 2000 to form ''TotalFinaElf''. The company's current name is

Total S.A. TotalEnergies SE is a French multinational integrated energy and petroleum company founded in 1924 and one of the seven supermajor oil companies. Its businesses cover the entire oil and gas chain, from crude oil and natural gas exploration and ...

Career

Hector Carlier started his career at the Banque d' Anvers of which his father was the owner, together with the

Société Générale de Belgique The ' ( nl, Generale Maatschappij van België; literally "General Company of Belgium") was a large Belgian bank and later holdings company which existed between 1822 and 2003. The ''Société générale'' was originally founded as an investm ...

. On 25 February 1920, he founded the oil company ''Compagnie Financière Belge des Pétroles'', together with his brother Fernand and the

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy * Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD * Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a let ...

minister

Aloys Van de Vyvere Aloys (Alois) Jean Maria Joseph, Viscount Van de Vyvere (8 June 1871 – 22 October 1961) was a Belgian Catholic Party politician. Biography Born in Tielt, Van de Vyvere studied law and philosophy and worked as a lawyer in Ghent, where he se ...

. The company got its oil from

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Moldova to the east, and ...

, after they first had compensated the

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

claimants on that oil. Their success came to an abrupt end with the outbreak of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

. The most important refinery of Petrofina in Dunkirk, was devastated during the war. After the war the Carliers were accused of economic collaboration. Hector committed suicide on 1 January 1946 on his Boterberg estate in

, and his brother Fernand escaped to

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

Personal life

In 1933 Hector had married the 23 years younger Dutch Amelia Goossens (died in 1989,) from

Woensdrecht Woensdrecht () is a municipality (named after the village) in the southern Netherlands. Woensdrecht is the home of the Woensdrecht Air Base, which is located to the north-east of the village of Woensdrecht and to the north-west of Huijbergen. ...

, in Dover,

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It i ...

. Together they had three children, Amalia (+2001), Ferdinand (1935-1986) and Marie-Antoinette (1934-2007) who all remained unmarried. The sisters Carlier, after the death of their mother, lived soberly at the Boterberg castle in Kalmthout. When Marie Antoinette died in 2007, she gave the entire family fortune to some private heirs and to the

King Baudouin Foundation The King Baudouin Foundation (KBF) ( nl, Koning Boudewijnstichting, KBS; french: Fondation Roi-Baudouin) is an independent, pluralistic foundation based in Brussels (Belgium). It seeks to change society for the better and invests in inspiring proj ...

References

External links

Wie was Hector Carlier?
(Dutch)

Petrofina, un lourd héritage

1884 births 1946 deaths Belgian bankers 20th-century Belgian businesspeople People from Kalmthout TotalEnergies people 1946 suicides Suicides in Belgium {{Belgium-business-bio-stub