Memories of the First World War in Belgium (part 1)

In July 1931, an exhibition organized by the 'Club Royal Philatélique des Invalides de Guerre' took place in Brussels. That is according to the Belgian stamp catalogue. But what did the letters ONOG and ONIG, or NWOW and NWOI, mean? With a bit of research on the internet, I discovered that on October 11, 1919, the Belgian Parliament had approved the Law intended to provide material and moral support to the National Work for War Invalids (NWOI). This could be achieved by providing the invalids with as much training as possible so that they could pursue certain professions suitable for them. In this way, these invalids could retain their place in society. In fact, it was a continuation of the work founded in 1914 by Princess De Merode. Her objective was to care for the mutilated who had been left behind by the Germans in emergency hospitals. The work was expanded at the request of the Belgian government in exile to include the wounded being cared for in French hospitals. The NWOW concerned itself with the orphans of civilians who had perished due to acts of war and the widows of fallen soldiers. The stamp depicts Belgian Prince Leopold III in the uniform of a corporal of the 12th Line Regiment. Why the prince was immortalized in such a simple uniform is unclear, but it may be related to the idea of ​​placing the prince closer to the people. The stamp was not available individually but exclusively in a block.And collectors could only purchase the block by subscription from July 18 to 22, 1931. A total of 59.224 blocks were sold. A number of these were torn up because some stamp album publishers had included both the block and loose stamps from it in the pre-printed album…. Incidentally, the block in my collection showed a small printing error in the form of a horizontal line through the first letter E of Belgium. The blocks sold were often provided with an impression of a special postmark from the stamp exhibition. The fragment below proves that they were not always stamped correctly. The block was lying 'upside down' in the stack, and that is why things went wrong. In part 2, other Belgian stamps issued before the Second World War with 'memories' of the First World War.