Henri François Serruys (9 November 1796, in Ostend - 12 November 1883), was a Belgian unionist politician, mayor of Ostend. Biography Serruys was the eighth of eleven children of Jacques Serruys (1759-1824) and of Julie Hertoghe (1762-1847). His father was a gin distiller in Koekelare. He married in 1826 Melanie De Clercq (1801-1852), daughter of the shipowner Salomon De Clercq and of Josepha Merghelynck. They had two daughters and a son, who remained single. At the end of the French Empire, he was one of the notable families of Ostend, which had to deliver a son for the imperial army. He participated in the last Napoleonic battles. In November 1830 he was elected member of the city council of Ostend and from 1836 until his resignation in 1860 he was mayor of the town. In 1901 a lane was named after him in Ostend. Literature * P. VANDENABELE, Henri Serruys, burgemeester van de stad Oostende. * Lucy PEELLAERT, Contribution à l'histoire et à la généalogie de la famille Serruys, Brussel, 1987.
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