Aarnoud van Heemstra

Aarnoud van Heemstra
Governor-General of Suriname
In office
23 May 1921 – 21 May 1924
Preceded by L. J. Rietberg
Succeeded by L. J. Rietberg
In office
21 February 1925 – 1 April 1928
Preceded by Jan Luchies Nysingh
Succeeded by Bram Rutgers
Personal details
Born (1871-07-22)22 July 1871
Vreeland, Netherlands
Died 30 December 1957(1957-12-30) (aged 86)
Oosterbeek, Netherlands
Spouse(s)
Elbrig Willemine Henriette, Baroness van Asbeck
(m. 1896; d. 1939)

Anna Eliza Roosenburg
(m. 1947)
Children 6, including Ella van Heemstra
Relatives Audrey Hepburn (granddaughter)

Aarnoud Jan Anne Aleid, Baron van Heemstra (22 July 1871 – 30 December 1957) was a Dutch nobleman, jurist and politician.

Life and career

Kasteel Zijpendaal

Baron Van Heemstra was born in Vreeland, the son of Wilhelmina Cornelia (née de Beaufort)(1843-1927) and baron Willem Hendrik Johan van Heemstra (1841-1909), the mayor of Loenen. He also had an older brother, baron Hendrik Philip Jacob van Heemstra (1867-1931). He studied at Utrecht University where he obtained his doctorate in law in 1896. He established himself in Arnhem where he was prosecuting lawyer and subsequently deputy judge at the district court. In 1902 he was appointed official at the district court in Roermond and in October 1909 deputy public prosecutor at the arrondissement court of Maastricht. In 1910 he became mayor of the city of Arnhem, following Antonie Röell and preceding Dirk Jan de Geer. In 1920 Wilhelmina of the Netherlands appointed him governor of Suriname, from which he retired in 1928. Living in the Arnhem region, he redacted a political economic magazine until 1940.

Refusing to collaborate with the NSB during World War II, the German occupiers confiscated many of his possessions, including estates, bank accounts, and even jewelry. He was forced to move out of the estate Kasteel Zijpendaal outside Arnhem to Oosterbeek and later Velp. In 1942, his son-in-law Otto graaf van Limburg Stirum was executed in retaliation for a sabotage by the resistance movement. After this, his widowed daughter Miesje (1897-1987) and his divorced daughter Ella (1900-1984) lived with him in Velp, along with Ella's youngest child, the future actress Audrey Hepburn (1929-1993).

Van Heemstra died in Oosterbeek.

Family

In 1896, he married Elbrig Willemine Henriette, Baroness van Asbeck (1873-1939), who was a granddaughter of Dirk van Hogendorp. They had six children, five daughters and one son:

  • Wilhelmina Cornelia (Miesje) baroness van Heemstra (1897-1987), married to Otto graaf van Limburg Stirum (1893-1942)
  • Geraldine Caroline baroness van Heemstra (1898-1965)
  • Ella van Heemstra (1900-1984) mother of actress Audrey Hepburn
  • Marianne Jacqueline baroness van Heemstra (1903-1991), lady-in-waiting to princess and later Queen Juliana of the Netherlands
  • Willem Hendrik Johan baron van Heemstra (1907- 1978)
  • Arnoudina Johanna baroness van Heemstra (1911-1975)

In 1947, eight years after the death of his first wife, van Heemstra married a second time, to Anna Eliza Roosenburg (1901-1988). They remained married until his death in 1957.

Honours

References

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