Auguste Marie François Beernaert, Nobel Peace Prize, 1909

Auguste Marie François Beernaert (26 July 1829 – 6 October 1912) was the 14th Prime Minister of Belgium from October 1884 to March 1894.

Born in Ostend in 1829, he entered the faculty of law at the Catholic University of Leuven at age 17. He finished five years later with greatest distinction.

He was elected to the Chamber of Deputies in 1873, and became Minister of Public Works under Jules Malou, greatly improving the rail, canal and road systems. After his tenure as Prime Minister, he represented Belgium at the Hague conventions of 1899 and 1907. He was also co-winner (with Paul d'Estournelles de Constant) of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1909 for his work at the Permanent Court of Arbitration. He was chosen as president of the panel established under the rules of that organization in the Sarvarkar Case in 1911. A year later, he died in Lucerne, Switzerland.