Govert Huijser (6 February 1931 – 5 January 2014) was a Dutch general and Chief of the Defence Staff between 1983 and 1988. Huijser was born in

Surabaya Surabaya ( jv, ꦱꦸꦫꦧꦪ or jv, ꦯꦹꦫꦨꦪ; ; ) is the capital city of the Provinces of Indonesia, Indonesian province of East Java and the List of Indonesian cities by population, second-largest city in Indonesia, after Jakarta. L ...

, in the then

Dutch East Indies The Dutch East Indies, also known as the Netherlands East Indies ( nl, Nederlands(ch)-Indië; ), was a Dutch colony consisting of what is now Indonesia. It was formed from the nationalised trading posts of the Dutch East India Company, which ...

. During World War II he was imprisoned in a Japanese internment camp. In 1949 he enrolled in the Royal Military Academy of the Netherlands. He graduated as a second lieutenant. As major general he served as commanding officer of the First Division "7 December". In 1983 he was promoted to Chief of the Defence Staff (''Dutch:Chef Defensiestaf''). During this time he was the only four-star general of the Netherlands. In 1986 he was made aide-de-camp to Queen

Beatrix of the Netherlands Beatrix (Beatrix Wilhelmina Armgard, ; born 31 January 1938) is a member of the Dutch royal house who reigned as Queen of the Netherlands from 1980 until her abdication in 2013. Beatrix is the eldest daughter of Queen Juliana and her husband ...

. In 1988 he reached the mandatory age of retirement, he was succeeded as Chief of the Defence Staff by Peter Graaff. He died on 5 January 2014 in

Roosendaal Roosendaal () is both a city and a Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the southern Netherlands, in the province of North Brabant. Towns/villages of the municipality * Roosendaal (population: 66,760) * Wouw (4,920) * Heerle (1, ...

References

External links

* 1931 births 2014 deaths Chiefs of the Defence Staff (Netherlands) People from Surabaya Graduates of the Koninklijke Militaire Academie Royal Netherlands Army generals Knights Commander of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany {{Netherlands-mil-bio-stub