Firmin van Bree

Firmin van Bree (28 May 1880 – 26 March 1960) was a Belgian engineer who played a leading role in developing the Belgian companies that exploited the mineral and agricultural resources of the Belgian Congo. Although involved in a wide range of activities, his primary interest was in diamond mining. During World War II it was suspected that he helped supply the Germans with diamonds from the Congo. After the war he retired to Saint-Jean-de-Luz in the south of France, where he owned three villas and had a small chapel and a crypt built, where he is buried. Firmin van Bree was born on 28 May 1880 in Anderlecht, Brussels, Belgium. He attended the Université catholique de Louvain and graduated in 1903 with a degree in civil engineering and a license in commercial and consular sciences. He joined the Compagnie du chemin de fer du Congo as an engineer, and sailed to the Congo Free State (later to become the Belgian Congo, today the Democratic Republic of the Congo), where he worked on the newly completed railway line from Matadi to the Stanley Pool (Pool Malebo). By the end of his two-year term he had been promoted to head of the movement and traction department. On his return to Belgium van Bree was employed by Jean Jadot as technical secretary. Jadot was one of the founders of the three "1906 companies", the Union Minière du Haut-Katanga, the Compagnie du chemin de fer du bas-Congo au Katanga (BCK) and Forminière, and was to become governor of the Société Générale de Belgique. Van Bree's primary responsibility was with Forminière, a large and diversified enterprise involved in forestry, mining, agriculture, industry, commerce and finance, with prospecting rights over one third of the Congo Free State. Van Bree organized and led several prospecting expeditions in the districts of Kasai, Maniema, Uele, Lac Léopold II, Bas-Congo and Kwango. For five years the results were disappointing, but in October 1911 diamond deposits were found in Kasai. Exploitation began at once, and the first shipment of diamonds reached Antwerp at the end of 1913, a few months before the start of World War I.