Born Joseph Brand Whitlock, in Urbana, he lived in Findlay as a youth when his preacher father was pastor of First Methodist Episcopal church before being appointed to presiding district elder in Toledo. Brand, a socialist, later served four terms as Mayor of Toledo before being appointed the Ambassador to Belgium shortly before World War I.
The US embassy website has this about Whitlock:
While celebrated as a great American author, accomplished attorney, and four-term mayor of Toledo, Ohio, it was as the U.S. Minister to Belgium that Brand Whitlock earned the nickname of “Le Ministre Protecteur” on account of his role as an advocate for Belgian citizens and condemned prisoners in German-occupied Belgium.
Born in 1869 in Urbana, Ohio, Whitlock’s early career touched in journalism, litigation, and politics. After declining a nomination to serve a fifth term as Mayor of Toledo, in 1913, he accepted President Woodrow Wilson’s appointment to serve as Minister to Belgium. Arriving in Brussels in 1914, Whitlock was in office at the outbreak of the European War. Remaining at his post following the German invasion of Belgium, he was entrusted with the delicate task of representing seven of the warring nations, including the United Kingdom.
As U.S. Minister to Belgium, Whitlock famously championed the case of Edith Cavell, a British nurse who was arrested by the German occupation forces in Belgium for her role in helping over 200 wounded Allied soldiers escape to safety. Whitlock appealed her condemnation to the German Military Governor of Belgium, to no avail. Her death sentence was carried out on October 12, 1915.
(b. 1869 d. 1934: writer and politician)
