This photograph depicts the Interior of the Catholic Church of Our Lady of Compassion and St Theodore, Plantation Road, Faversham, which was attended by the local Belgian community during the Great War.
Following the influx of Belgian refugees; 20,000 in one weekend landed in Folkestone; from 1914 onwards homes were found for the refugees throughout Britain. Many of the refugees remained in Kent and there were communities in all the Coastal Towns including Faversham. The local community helped the refugees, many of whom had fled with nothing but the clothes they were wearing, and houses were provided for them to live in. In all 68 refugees were found homes in Faversham and remained in the town during the course of the War and returned home in 1919.
Image & text courtesy of the Fleur de Lis Heritage Centre, Faversham