Art and designאדמונד וילהלם ברילנט

Edmond Wilhelm Brillant

Edmond Wilhelm Brillant was a Polish-born Israeli naval architect and one of the founders of the Israeli Navy.

1916 to 2004Founding the Israeli NavyFounding naval damage controlPlanning the Ibrahim el Awal capture

Occupation: architect, engineer, military personnel
Education: Technion – Israel Institute of Technology
Rank: Sgan Aluf
Wars: World War II, 1948 Palestine war, Suez Crisis

Edmond Wilhelm Brillant was born in 1916 in Jarosław

Brillant was born in 1916 in Jarosław, Galicia, the youngest of four sons of the pharmacist Wiktor Brillant and his wife Laura. At 13 he joined the local gliding club, where he learned to build gliders and to fly.

He finished high school in Jarosław in 1934 and began medical studies, then moved to precision mechanics in Lviv. In 1936 he immigrated to Mandatory Palestine, settled in Haifa and studied mechanical engineering at the Technion.

He joined the Haganah, served with the Notrim railway guard and enlisted in the Royal Navy during World War II. His parents and a brother were killed in the Holocaust.

In the Israeli Navy he founded the damage control branch and a special salvage and underwater unit. He planned the 1956 operation in which the Egyptian destroyer Ibrahim el Awal was captured. The navy later lent him to ZIM to lead 3 merchant ship building projects.

He became a Freemason in 1966 and lived in Haifa. He died in 2004.

Milestones in Edmond Wilhelm Brillant's life

1916
Born in Jarosław, Galicia.
1936
Immigrated to Mandatory Palestine and began studying at the Technion.
1937
Became an instructor at the Haganah flight club in Kfar Yeladim.
1938
Volunteered for the Notrim railway guard and was wounded by a mine.
1942
Enlisted in the Royal Navy as an engine room artificer.
1944
Began Royal Navy pilot training but was removed as a volunteer from Palestine.
1946
Was discharged from the Royal Navy.
1956
Planned the capture of the Egyptian destroyer Ibrahim el Awal.
2004
Died.

Edmond Wilhelm Brillant served in the military

He served in the Haganah and the Notrim, then in the Royal Navy from 1942 to 1946, mainly at Massawa in Eritrea, leaving as a sub-lieutenant. He later joined the Haganah Harbor Platoon and served in the Israeli Navy from its founding as a naval staff officer.