Belgian surgeon Charles Willems (1859-1930) played a prominent role in the founding of the Société Internationale de Chirurgie (International Society of Surgery), of which he became the first president in 1902. He kept the office until 1929, when illness obliged him to discontinue. He had an important military career in the Balkan War but especially during World War I. He later became Professor of Surgery at the University of Liège. He produced numerous scientific articles on various surgical subjects and even started a journal that was the forerunner of the World Journal of Surgery. The International Society of Surgery owes a lot to its first president.