Émile Coppieters

Coppieters was born in Ghent on 15 December 1849, the son of Pierre Coppieters and Emilie Vanden Berghe.

In 1895 he was elected a Socialist town councillor in Ghent. From 1908 to 1919 he sat in the Senate for the Arrondissement of Liège, and from 1919 until his death for the Arrondissement of Eeklo.^[1] He took the leading role in organising the Universal and International Exhibition held in Ghent in 1913.^[2] After the First World War he was appointed royal commissioner for the devastated areas, playing a particular role in the post-war rebuilding of Nieuwpoort.^[1]

As a private contractor he was involved in works on the ports of Ostend, Bruges, Antwerp and Brussels, and the Charleroi canal.^[1]

• Le Bassin de l’Yser. Documentation scientifique, historique, administrative (Ghent, 1920)
• with C. Janssens, L’eau potable au Bassin de l’Yser (Ghent, 1921)