Jean de Selys Longchamps

Jean's brother, Michel-François de Selys, is the father of Baroness Sybille de Selys Longchamps, the former mistress of King Albert II, with whom she has a daughter, Princess Delphine (who since October 2020 can legally wear the title of "Her Royal Highness"). Her legal name though is now Delphine Saxe-Coburg.

On August 16, 1943, Selys Longchamps was killed while attempting to land at RAF Manston, his landing gear having been damaged by German Flak during a mission over Ostend. He is buried in Minster-in-Thanet. A commemoration of his life was held on 16 August 2013 in conjunction with the Royal British Legion.

This - and more specifically the fact that his father had died under torture at the hands of the Sicherheitspolizei (SiPo) - led Longchamps to devise a plan to strafe the building, which was repeatedly turned down by RAF command. Undiscouraged, he decided to act of his own accord, using on January 20, 1943 an approved railway strafing mission over Ghent as a jumping-off point for his venture. Upon completing this mission he ordered his wingman (flight sergeant André Blanco) back to base and set a course for Brussels, some 50 kilometres (31 mi) to the south-east.

Immediately upon the fall of Belgium on May 10, 1940, the Gestapo commandeered Résidence Belvédère, a luxurious Art Deco apartment building located at 453 Avenue Louise in Brussels as its headquarters. The building soon gained a sinister reputation as its cellars were being used for torturing prisoners.

Baron Jean Michel P.M.G. de Selys Longchamps DFC (31 May 1912 – 16 August 1943) was a Belgian aristocrat and RAF fighter pilot during World War II. He is chiefly known for his single-handed attack on the Gestapo headquarters in Brussels in German-occupied Belgium.