Gustave Boel (c1837-1912)
1912 Obituary [1]
Mr. GUSTAVE BOEL died, at the age of seventy-five years, at his residence at Brussels, on Sunday, March 31, as the result of a short illness. He was born at Houdeng-Goegnies on March 18, 1837. He had been a Senator of the Belgian Upper Assembly from the year 1880 to the time of his death, and had sat as recently as March in the current year.
He was the owner of a number of important industrial concerns in Belgium, including sugar refineries, an ice factory, and ironworks and collieries in the Chenoy district. In the earlier days of his career, he was associated with the late Mr. Boucqueau in a number of important undertakings. The fortunes of the firm being jeopardised by a financial crisis, Mr. Boel placed at the disposal of the Company his entire financial resources, and when, a few years later, Mr. Boucqueau died, he appointed Mr. Boel his sole heir, leaving to him the numerous activities which they had conjointly pursued. In politics Mr. Boel held strong Liberal opinions.
He was a member of a number of learned societies and institutions in France and Belgium, and he was elected a member of the Iron and Steel Institute in 1892. He was buried at La Louviere on Tuesday, April 2.