Mrs van Asbeck-Patijn

Den Haag 7 Jan 1896 – 21 Feb 1982

Elisabeth Henriëtte Maria baronesse VAN ASBECK-PATIJN, born Patijn (her birth record; her death notice); "Mrs. van Asbeck-Patijn "Roode Koper", Leuvenum" on the Sterrehoveke forms (Ima van Eysinga's file, p. 3)

About: ◐ Very probably the wife of the Dutch naval officer Carel Johan Baron van Asbeck; by the Sterrehoveke household's forms, James Hardy came to Sterrehoveke from her and joined Murphy and Walsh, and Hardy dates his walk from Leuvenum to Elspeet 19 October 1944. The identification of the forms' "Mrs. van Asbeck-Patijn" with Elisabeth Henriette Maria Patijn rests on the rare name, and she is very probably also the English-speaking naval officer's wife who, in Hardy's own report, walked him from Leuvenum to Elspeet.

Unit or role: A helper named on two Sterrehoveke forms for the Americans (Ima van Eysinga's and Liesbeth Verweij's, p. 3); no file or form of her own has been found. After the war an amateur painter, with honourable mentions in the Talens prize of 1959 and the Jacob Maris prize of 1967 (below).

Where: "Roode Koper", Leuvenum, on the forms; a Patijn family notice of February 1944 is signed from "Het Roode Koper, Elspeet (G.)", and an advertisement of August 1945 has "„Roode Koper", Leuvenum, post Elspeet" (below). After the war Waalsdorperweg 18, The Hague (below).

Evidence: ✓ the Sterrehoveke forms, 27 January 1946 (Ima van Eysinga's file, p. 3; Liesbeth Verweij's, p. 3); ◐ Hardy's MI9 report, 13 January 1945, which does not give her name; ◐ Liesbeth Verweij's account as Noordman prints it, p. 302, and his own text, p. 279; ✓ her birth and marriage records (Haags Gemeentearchief, through Open Archieven); ✓ family notices of 1931, 1935, 1944, 1956, 1962 and 1982; ✓ Amigoe di Curaçao, 23 February 1942, on her husband; ✓ The London Gazette, 26 August 1941 and 10 September 1943; ◐ the address and the amateur painting, read from the KB's OCR: Trouw, 1945, Algemeen Handelsblad, 1955, Het Binnenhof, 1955, Nieuwe Haarlemsche Courant, 1959, Het Binnenhof, 1960, Limburgsch Dagblad, 1960, De Telegraaf, 1964 and De Telegraaf, 1967.

✓ Birth and parents. Elisabeth Henriette Maria Patijn was born at The Hague on 7 January 1896, the daughter of Rudolf Johan Hendrik Patijn, "commies-griffier van de Tweede Kamer der Staten-Generaal" (a clerk to the Second Chamber of the States General), and Elisabeth Henriette Maria de Jonge, a jonkvrouwe (a woman of the untitled nobility); the witnesses were Jacob Gerard Patijn, a meester in law and advocate-general at the Supreme Court, and ◐ jonkheer Jan Adriaan de Jonge, 31, advocate (the given names are faint on the scan) (the birth record; act 95 of 8 January 1896, read on the scan). ◐ "Bep", her name in Verweij's account (below), is a usual short form of Elisabeth; no source held gives it as hers in so many words.

✓ Marriage. On 6 October 1921, at The Hague, she married Carel Johan van Asbeck, 30, "luitenant ter zee eerste klasse" (lieutenant, first class, in the navy), son of Willem Dirk Henrik van Asbeck and Anne Marie Jeanne Henriette Kluit; he was living at Vlissingen, and the banns were published at The Hague and at Vlissingen on 3 September (the marriage record; act 1538, read on the scan). The Hague population register has the couple and a son born at Vlissingen on 4 February 1923, the town the act gives as his home in 1921 (the register).

✓ A naval household. A profile of her husband in 1942 gives his career: a cadet at the naval college at Den Helder from 1906, lieutenant first class from 1 November 1920 and lieutenant-commander from 27 March 1933; in command of the naval ships Mataram and Koetei in 1926–1927, three years at the Ministry of Defence, in command of the Soemba from 1931; in 1934 first officer of the cruiser Java and then in command of a division of two destroyers on a voyage from the Netherlands East Indies to the Netherlands; and from 1 February 1936 commandant of the Royal Naval College at Den Helder, which he still was shortly before the German invasion (Amigoe di Curaçao, 23 February 1942, image-checked). His father, W. D. H. Baron van Asbeck, had been a rear-admiral, Governor of Suriname and envoy (the same; his death notice, 1935). Notices and newspaper items place her:

• 1927: the notice for his mother, who died at Madrid on 7 May 1927, is signed from Macassar by "VAN ASBECK— PATIJN", under "Baron en Baronesse" (Algemeen Handelsblad, 8 May 1927, image-checked).
• 1931: in March she sat, as "mevr. baronesse E. van Asbeck—Patijn", on the ladies' committee of patronage for the Hague choral society Excelsior's jubilee bazaar (Haagsche Courant, 4 March 1931; OCR only).
• 1934:
  • in August, at Surabaya, "E. Baronesse van Asbeck-Patijn" was on a ladies' committee formed to put the district nursing service "Mardi Santosa" on a sounder financial footing (Soerabaijasch Handelsblad, 27 August 1934, image-checked);
  • in November a passenger list has "mevr. E. H. M. van Asbeck-Patijn en kn." (Mrs E. H. M. van Asbeck-Patijn and children) among the passengers listed for Genoa, Villefranche, Southampton and Amsterdam on the s.s. Johan de Witt, bound from Batavia to Amsterdam, whose passenger list was printed on 5 and 7 November 1934 (De Indische Courant, 7 November 1934, the list; checked on the image; the same list is in De Locomotief of 5 November and the Deli Courant).
• 1935: the notice for his father, who died on 17 May 1935 (the notice is dated The Hague), is signed from Nieuwediep by "C. J. Baron VAN ASBECK. E. H. M. Baronesse VAN ASBECK—PATIJN" (Algemeen Handelsblad, 17 May 1935, image-checked).

✓ Ima van Eysinga's family. When Ima van Eysinga's mother died in May 1931, a notice calling her "onze Schoonzuster en Tante" (our sister-in-law and aunt) was signed by W. D. H. Baron van Asbeck and his children's households, among them "Baron en Barones VAN ASBECK—PATIJN" (Algemeen Handelsblad, 5 May 1931, image-checked). The notice says no more about how the families were related. Ima van Eysinga was the woman of Sterrehoveke to whose house Hardy was brought in 1944.

✓ Het Roode Koper. A Patijn family notice of February 1944 is signed from "Het Roode Koper, Elspeet (G.)" (Algemeen Handelsblad, 10 February 1944, image-checked). Het Roode Koper lay at Leuvenum, in the post district of Elspeet: an advertisement of August 1945 gives the address as "„Roode Koper", Leuvenum, post Elspeet" (Trouw, 11 August 1945; OCR only). Noordman calls Bep van Asbeck the occupant ("bewoonster") of Het Roode Koper, "een groot landhuis in Leuvenum" (a large country house in Leuvenum) (p. 279).

✓ The London Gazette of 26 August 1941 lists "Captain Baron Carel van Asbeck" in the Naval Section of the official staffs of the Netherlands government in London (the Gazette), and on 10 September 1943 it removes him from that list with effect from 19 January 1942 (the Gazette). On 21 February 1942 "Kapitein ter Zee Carel Johan van Asbeck" arrived at Curaçao (Amigoe di Curaçao, 23 February 1942, image-checked; the paper of Monday 23 February has him arriving "Zaterdag"). No source held says where he was in October 1944.

Ima van Eysinga's form for the Americans has James Hardy coming to Sterrehoveke from "Mrs. van Asbeck-Patijn "Roode Koper", Leuvenum", and going on from there with Walsh and Murphy to "Joop Michelsen, Erick Blok, Hulshorst", Joop Migchelsen and Eric Blok. The form gives no dates (her file, p. 3). Liesbeth Verweij, who lived in the same house, gave the same line on her own form: "James Hardy, R.A.M.C. Para Bat.", from "Mrs. van Asbeck-Patijn "Roode Koper", Leuvenum" (her file, p. 3).

Hardy's own report tells the same day from his side without her name. Setting out alone on the morning of 19 October 1944 to travel by Leuvenum and Staverden, he was taken by a young man at a Leuvenum farm:

… to a large house in the centre of the village. Here I met a lady, aged about 45, who spoke excellent English, who said that her husband was an officer of the Netherlands Navy and was in England. I do not know her name but she said she could put me in touch with someone who could help me.

— MI9 · Pte J. Hardy, 16 Parachute Field Ambulance · IS9/WEA/1/270/2351 · 13 January 1945 · the report

"We walked together to ELSPEET (670123) and there she took me to a house where I met a member of the Underground who was known by the name of DEREK"; Hardy hid in the garden and was given a meal "while DEREK accompanied the English-speaking lady back to LEUVENUM", and that night Derek, Dirk van Eysinga, took him to the house where he met Murphy (Hardy). Liesbeth Verweij's memoir, as Noordman prints it, tells it from the Sterrehoveke side and calls her "Bep van Asbeck": "Na ongeveer een week stond Bep van Asbeck plotseling voor de deur van de eetkamer met een geheimzinnig gezicht en vertelde dat ze een parachutist bij zich had. Hij was op Het Roode Koper komen aanlopen" (after about a week Bep van Asbeck suddenly stood at the dining-room door with a mysterious look and said she had a paratrooper with her; he had walked up to Het Roode Koper), and Dirk questioned him: "Hij heette James Hardy maar werd Jack genoemd" (his name was James Hardy but he was called Jack) (Noordman, p. 302). Mrs van Asbeck-Patijn appears on October on the Veluwe.

◐ The village, the day, the house and the hand-over to the Van Eysingas (Ima and Dirk) make her very probably both Verweij's "Bep van Asbeck" and Hardy's English-speaking lady; her husband was a Dutch naval officer, listed on the Netherlands' naval staff in London in 1941 and removed from the list with effect from 19 January 1942 (above).

✓ The Hague. By December 1955 she and her husband lived at Waalsdorperweg 18, The Hague, the address they gave on the notices for her mother, who died on 13 December 1955 aged 86 (the notice is dated The Hague), and her father, "Staatsraad i.b.d." (Councillor of State in extraordinary service), who died on 23 November 1956 aged 92 (Algemeen Handelsblad, 14 December 1955, OCR only; Het Vaderland, 27 November 1956, OCR only).

◐ An amateur painter. Every item in this list is read from the KB's OCR unless marked.

• 1955: an exhibition review singles out "dat eenvoudige en fijne kinderportretje van E. van Asbeck-Patijn" (that simple and fine little child's portrait by E. van Asbeck-Patijn) (Het Binnenhof, 9 August 1955).
• 1959–1960, the Talens prize:
  • in the amateurs' group, honourable mentions for "E. H. M. van Asbeck-Patijn, Schilderesje" (little woman painter) and five others (Nieuwe Haarlemsche Courant, 11 November 1959, image-checked);
  • the prizes were handed out in July 1960, the works to go on show at Pulchri Studio (Het Binnenhof, 1 July 1960);
  • at the Talens show "Nederland schildert", hung in the Gemeentemuseum at Roermond, a reviewer rated Schilderesje the best of the amateurs (Limburgsch Dagblad, 15 March 1960), in the words below.

Mrs van Asbeck Patijn must have painted a great deal to be able to make the pure, attentive little work Schilderesje. Of the amateurs I rate this the highest.

Dutch originalMevrouw van Asbeck Patijn moet wel heel veel geschilderd hebben om tot het puur, aanda-dhtig [aandachtig] werkje Schilderesje te kunnen maken. Ik schat van de amateurs dit het hoogste.

— a reviewer of "Nederland schildert", Roermond · Limburgsch Dagblad · 15 March 1960 · the review (KB OCR)

• 1964: with three other women she showed wall hangings of her own making at a private exhibition in a house near the hotel Witte Brug, The Hague (De Telegraaf, 5 November 1964).
• 1967: an honourable mention, as "mevr. E. van Asbeck-Patijn", in the non-professionals' section of the Jacob Maris prize at Pulchri Studio (De Telegraaf, 22 July 1967).

✓ Widowed. "CAREL JOHAN BARON VAN ASBECK gep. Vice-Admiraal" (retired vice-admiral), aged 71, died on 5 November 1962 by a notice of that day ("Heden overleed", died today), dated The Hague and signed first by "E. H. M. van Asbeck—Patijn"; his cremation was set for the Friday at Velsen (Algemeen Handelsblad, 7 November 1962, image-checked).

✓ Her death. "Op 21 februari 1982 overleed geheel onverwacht onze lieve moeder en grootmoeder ELISABETH HENRIËTTE MARIA baronesse VAN ASBECK-PATIJN op de leeftijd van 86 jaar" (on 21 February 1982 our dear mother and grandmother died quite unexpectedly, aged 86); the notice sets the cremation for 25 February at the Daelwijck crematorium, Utrecht. A second notice, dated Zeist, 21 February 1982, calls her the widow of C. J. baron van Asbeck (NRC Handelsblad, 23 February 1982, image-checked).

• ⚠︎ Who sent Hardy on. The two forms agree, but they come from one household and may have been filled in together; Hardy did not know her name, and no source outside Sterrehoveke names her in this episode.
• Hardy's "aged about 45". Born on 7 January 1896 (the birth record), she was 48 on 19 October 1944.
• Her husband "in England". Hardy's lady said her husband "was in England" (Hardy). The London Gazette lists Captain Baron Carel van Asbeck in London only until 19 January 1942, and the Amigoe has him arriving at Curaçao on 21 February 1942 (above); no source held places him in October 1944.
• Where and when they married. The Hague civil record has 's-Gravenhage, 6 October 1921 (the record); the 1942 profile has "4 October 1921 te Den Helder" (Amigoe di Curaçao). ✓ The civil record stands.

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