Alfred van der Smissen
Alfred van der Smissen, 2nd Baron van der Smissen was a Belgian general.
Biography
He started his career in the French Foreign Legion before serving in the Belgian Legion in the Second Franco-Mexican War.Family
Alfred van der Smissen is the second son of Jacques Van der Smissen, 1st Baron van der Smissen, a Belgian artillery officer who enlisted in 1807 in Napoleon's Grande Armée, where he obtained the rank of major. His mother was Louise Catherine Colleton Graves, daughter of Rear Admiral Richard Graves and niece of Thomas Graves, 1st Baron Graves, who took part in opposing the landing of the French expeditionary force of Jean-Baptiste-Donatien de Vimeur de Rochambeau near Yorktown.Honours and arms
- Grand Officer of the Order of Leopold
- Commander of the Legion of Honour
- Order of the Lion and the Sun First Class
- Order of the Medjidie Third Class
- Military Cross
- Order of Saint Anna, 1st class with diamonds
- Grand Cross of the Order of the Red Eagle
- Grand Cross of the Order of Charles III
- Cross of Honour 1st Class of the Princely House Order of Hohenzollern
- Order of Guadalupe
- Grand Cross of the Order of Aviz
- Order of the Gold Lion of the House of Nassau
- Imperial Order of the Mexican Eagle
- Commemorative medal of the Mexico Expedition
- Knight of the Order of Leopold (Austria)
- 2nd Class Order of the Crown (Prussia)