François van 't Sant
François van 't Sant | |
---|---|
Officer in the Order of the Crown of Belgium | |
Espionage activity | |
Allegiance | Netherlands |
Rank | Head-commissioner of police Major-general |
Operations | World War I and World War II |
François van 't Sant ( 11 February 1883 – 3 June 1966) was a Dutch head-commissioner of police, leading intelligence figure and confidant of
Early career
He was born in 1883 in the naval town of Den Helder as the eight child of Laurens van 't Sant and Néline François. His father was a minister in the Calvinist Dutch Reformed Church. His youth was mostly spent in the city of Utrecht. In 1906 he became a clerk within the Rotterdam Municipal Police Corps, a starters function for future police officers. He impressed his superiors so much that after an unusual short period of six months he was promoted inspector trainee. He served in Rotterdam's roughest neighbourhood, Rodezand, where sailors from all over the world would meet prostitutes. In 1910 he was promoted to inspector 3rd class and head of the River Police unit. On 27 August 1914 he married the Swedish soprano Kerstin (Greta) Margaretha Jonsson, after he had met her at a Wagner performance in Rotterdam during an international tour. In June 1915 the couple had a daughter.
World War I
At the beginning of
Thanks to his ability to control foreign secret services and his dealings with Tinsley, at the age of 33 Inspector Van 't Sant was promoted to
Prince Henry
In October 1920 Van 't Sant became head-commissioner of
In the 1930s Van 't Sant would become entangled in the 'Elisabeth le Roi Affair'. This affair was centred around a possible mistress of Prince Henry named Elisabeth le Roi, very likely a pseudonym. Van 't Sant pretended that her illegitimate child was fathered by the recently deceased Jonkheer Carel van Vredenburch, a former high ranking, rich and upper class Dutch diplomat. Van 't Sant convinced Vredenburch's heirs that the child was Vredenburch's and in order to avoid public embarrassment he had to pay the woman hush money and make her and her child disappear. But soon Vredenburch's family started to suspect Van 't Sant was swindling them as part of an ordinary blackmail scheme. An unofficial investigation and informal tribunal by three selected members of the ruling class followed. The tribunal acquitted Van 't Sant, but did reproach him for unprofessional behaviour. In January 1935 he resigned voluntarily as head-commissioner of police.[3]
Queen Wilhelmina intermittently employed Van 't Sant as her private secretary. When the story of the secret tribunal broke via the
World War II
When the Germans invaded the Netherlands on Friday 10 May 1940 the Queen and the Royal Family were in danger of capture by the Nazis. On Sunday 12 May the Queen, accompanied by Van 't Sant, travelled to
Van 't Sant and the CID cooperated closely with the foreign intelligence division of MI6, known as British Military Intelligence Section 9. Young volunteers were sent as secret agents into the Netherlands. They were trained by MI6, before being dropped by air or boat in the Netherlands. Due to bad training, insufficient preparation and betrayal many of these were arrested and executed by the Germans. Van 't Sant was not involved with the sending of Dutch agents into Holland by the SOE, which was being double played by the SD and Abwehr in the so-called Englandspiel.
Given his aggregation of several functions, some people felt Van 't Sant was getting too powerful. In August 1941 he was forced to resign as head of the CID, though he remained active as an advisor to the Queen and director of Police. Many who escaped from the Netherlands were interrogated by him to establish their trustworthiness, out of fear of German infiltrators. Amongst these refugees were resistance heroes such as
After the Netherlands was liberated Van 't Sant was re-united with his wife. They lived together in Torquay, England, until her death in June 1950 from a stroke.
Later years
In 1952 Van 't Sant returned to the Netherlands to live in Rotterdam, to be closer to his daughter. Once back, he soon became a confidant again of the Royal Family. As such he got involved in the so-called '
In the morning of 3 June 1966 François van 't Sant died in his sleep at the age of 83 in Rotterdam.
Portrayal in popular culture
In 1977 Dutch film director Paul Verhoeven directed Soldaat van Oranje which was internationally distributed as Soldier of Orange. The film is loosely based on the memoirs of Erik Hazelhoff Roelfzema (see above), who is portrayed by Rutger Hauer. Van 't Sant appears as 'Van der Zanden'. His person also plays a major role in the television series Wilhelmina (NCRV, 2001). A Van 't Sant character appeared in the musical version of Soldaat van Oranje, which premièred in the Netherlands in 2010. The production was very successful, and toured the world in 2014.[5]
References
- ^ Ruis 2016.
- ^ Arlman & Mulder 1983, pp. 57–58.
- ^ Zee 2015, p. 126.
- ^ Zee 2015, p. 161.
- ^ Bradner, Liesl (22 December 2016). "'Soldier of Orange': It's the 'Hamilton' of the Netherlands, and it's immersive theater to an extreme". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 9 June 2017.
Bibliography
- Arlman, Hugo; Mulder, Gerard (1983). Van de prins geen kwaad [From the prince do not know evil] (in Dutch). Amsterdam: Sijthoff.
- Doolaard, A. den (1980). Londen en de zaak Van 't Sant [London and the Van 't Sant' case] (in Dutch). Amsterdam: Querido.
- Jong, Loe de (1969–1994). Het Koninkrijk der Nederlanden in de Tweede Wereldoorlog [The Kingdom of the Netherlands in World War II] (in Dutch). The Hague: SDU.
- Ruis, Edwin (2016). Spynest. British and German Espionage from Neutral Holland 1914–1918. Briscombe: The History Press.
- Zee, Sytze van der (2015). Harer Majesteits loyaalste onderdaan. François van 't Sant 1883–1966 [Her Majesty's loyal subject: François van 't Sant 1883–1966] (in Dutch). Amsterdam: De Bezige Bij.