Prosper Poullet

Prosper Poullet, Viscount Poullet (1868 to 1937), was a Belgian lawyer and Catholic Party politician who served as Prime Minister of Belgium from June 1925 to May 1926 and as President of the Chamber of Representatives from 1917 to 1919. Born in Leuven into a family of professors and ministers, he took a law doctorate in 1890, practised in Brussels and taught at the Leuven law faculty for almost four decades. Elected to the national parliament in 1908, he held many ministerial posts, including Arts and Sciences, Railways, Interior, Economic Affairs and War, and during that time he raised the compulsory school age from 12 to 14 and brought in the eight hour working day on the railways. His 1925 government was the first coalition between the Catholics and the Belgian Labour Party and ended after eleven months amid a financial crisis. He was made a viscount in 1925 and gave his library to the University of Leuven.