Lieutenant-General Lieutenant general (Lt Gen, LTG and similar) is a military rank used in many countries. The rank traces its origins to the Middle Ages, where the title of lieutenant general was held by the second-in-command on the battlefield, who was normall ...

Émile-Joseph Galet (1870 – 1940) was a Belgian army officer who served as personal military advisor to King Albert I in

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

and later from 1926 to 1932.

Biography

Émile Joseph Galet was born in Erpion,

Hainaut Province Hainaut ( , also , ; ; ; ; ), historically also known as Heynault in English, is the westernmost province of Wallonia, the French-speaking region of Belgium. To its south lies the French department of Nord, while within Belgium it borders ...

on 17 December 1870, the son of a clog maker. At age 18, he joined the

Belgian Army The Land Component (, ), historically and commonly still referred to as the Belgian Army (, ), is the Land warfare, land branch of the Belgian Armed Forces. The King of the Belgians is the commander in chief. The current chief of staff of the Land ...

as a militiaman during a period "when the nefarious system of drawing lots prevailed, the new recruit being the unlucky loser in the draw." Men of his village helped pay for his studies at the

École militaire École or Ecole may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France * Éco ...

," Galet entering as a '' sous-officier'' in the artillery. In 1894, Galet was commissioned as an officer, and his expertise on technical artillery use marked him out among his contemporaries. Although a classmate of Albert at the École militaire, it was only later that the king again encountered "this demon for work," now a staff major and lecturer at the École de Guerre. "He was an excellent teacher, and his lectures were always to the point. According to Albert, "He makes everything as clear as daylight." From that time on, Galet and Albert became friends, and Galet was attached to Albert in maneuvers in 1906, 1908 and 1909. His views on the importance of artillery in defensive warfare clashing with the dominant preference for the offensive in contemporary military thinking. Galet was "a Protestant mystic and read his Bible devoutly; his voluntary conversion, extremely conspicuous in a country where secularity is the only rival to Catholicism, made him unique in Belgium. He lived the life of a hermit, always absorbed in his studies which were exclusively military; he never laughed--it seemed he had no time for laughter, and, the soul of integrity himself, he respected the convictions of others." Although at the time of

, Galet was still only a ''

captain-commandant ''Captain-commandant'' is a rank currently used in the Belgian Armed Forces and formerly used in the United States Revenue Cutter Service and its successor, the United States Coast Guard. Belgium Captain-commandant (; ; ) is a junior officer o ...

'', he enjoyed the confidence of Albert and served as his unofficial military advisor during the period of fighting on the

Yser Front The Yser Front (, or ), sometimes termed the West Flemish Front in British writing, was a section of the Western Front (World War I), Western Front during World War I held by Belgium, Belgian troops from October 1914 until 1918. The front ran alo ...

. In the aftermath of the war, he was appointed as head of the Royal Military Academy in Brussels. He replaced Henry Maglinse as

Chief of the General Staff The Chief of the General Staff (CGS) is a post in many armed forces (militaries), the head of the military staff. List * Chief of the General Staff (Abkhazia) * Chief of General Staff (Afghanistan) * Chief of the General Staff (Albania) * C ...

on 22 January 1926. He retired from service on 26 December 1932. In 1931, a book titled ''S.M. le Roi Albert'' was published under Galet's name, with a

preface __NOTOC__ A preface () or proem () is an introduction to a book or other literature, literary work written by the work's author. An introductory essay written by a different person is a ''foreword'' and precedes an author's preface. The preface o ...

written by the King. In this

memoir A memoir (; , ) is any nonfiction narrative writing based on the author's personal memories. The assertions made in the work are thus understood to be factual. While memoir has historically been defined as a subcategory of biography or autob ...

about the king, he also defended the tactical decisions he argued on behalf of during

. Galet was recalled from retirement at the time of the German invasion of Belgium in May 1940 and served, briefly, as head of the Belgian Military Mission at France's Grand Quartier Général. He died in Brussels shortly afterwards on 26 November 1940.

Biography

References

Bibliography

Further reading