Kate ter Horst

MBE Mbe may refer to: * Mbé, a town in the Republic of the Congo * Mbe Mountains Community Forest, in Nigeria * Mbe language, a language of Nigeria * Mbe' language, language of Cameroon * ''mbe'', ISO 639 code for the extinct Molala language Molal ...

(born 6 July 1906,

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...

– 21 February 1992,

Oosterbeek Oosterbeek is a village in the eastern part of Netherlands. It is located in the municipality of Renkum in the province of Gelderland, about west of Arnhem. The oldest part of Oosterbeek is the Benedendorp (Lower Village), on the northern bank ...

) was a Dutch housewife and mother who tended wounded and dying Allied soldiers during the

Battle of Arnhem The Battle of Arnhem was a battle of the Second World War at the vanguard of the Allied Operation Market Garden. It was fought in and around the Dutch city of Arnhem, the town of Oosterbeek, the villages Wolfheze and Driel and the vicinity f ...

. Her British patients nicknamed her the ''Angel of Arnhem''. Ter Horst was born Kate Anna Arriëns, daughter of Pieter Albert Arriëns and Catharina Maingay. She married Jan ter Horst, a lawyer from

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte'') is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the ''"Ne ...

, with whom she had six children. One of her daughters, Sophie, still resides in the family home in Oosterbeek.

Second World War

Kate ter Horst witnessed the landings by the British 1st Airborne Division at the beginning of Operation Market Garden on 17 September 1944, noting the event in her diary. The goal of the operation was for the paratroopers to seize the bridges in and around Eindhoven, Nijmegen and

Arnhem Arnhem ( or ; german: Arnheim; South Guelderish: ''Èrnem'') is a city and municipality situated in the eastern part of the Netherlands about 55 km south east of Utrecht. It is the capital of the province of Gelderland, located on both ban ...

. The plan called for the British XXX Corps to advance across these bridges and then push into the

Ruhr Valley The Ruhr ( ; german: Ruhrgebiet , also ''Ruhrpott'' ), also referred to as the Ruhr area, sometimes Ruhr district, Ruhr region, or Ruhr valley, is a polycentric urban area in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. With a population density of 2,800/km ...

industrial area of Germany. However, the advance on Arnhem fell behind schedule, and the troops there were forced into a defensive pocket at Oosterbeek. Captain Randall Martin asked the ter Horsts permission to set up a regimental aid station in their house at the Benedendorpsweg in Oosterbeek. During the eight days of fighting, ter Horst tended to about 250 wounded British paratroopers herself. Some of her most famous actions in looking after the British troops included walking around her home reading the Bible to dying soldiers and finding water in the most unlikely places (such as the boiler and toilet) when, due to the large concentration of British troops, the house became a target. Ter Horst wrote about these experiences in a book called ''Cloud Over Arnhem''. Writing the foreword for the book, Arnhem veteran General Sir Frank King noted:

After the war

In November 1947, her eldest son, Pieter Albert, was killed by a leftover anti-tank mine in a meadow along the Rhine. She starred in ''

Theirs is the Glory ''Theirs Is the Glory'' (also known as ''Men of Arnhem''), is a 1946 British war film about the British 1st Airborne Division's involvement in the Battle of Arnhem (17 to 25 September 1944) during Operation Market Garden in the Second World W ...

'', a film made directly after the war about the battle of Arnhem in which survivors were asked to re-enact the parts they played in the battle. In 1980, the British ambassador to the Netherlands decorated Kate and her husband as Honorary Members of the Most Excellent

Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

. In 1992, Kate ter Horst died after she was struck by a car outside her home. Jan died on 1 August 2003 at the age of 98. The Angel of Arnhem

Following her death, an

Early Day Motion In the Westminster parliamentary system, an early day motion (EDM) is a motion, expressed as a single sentence, tabled by members of Parliament that formally calls for debate "on an early day". In practice, they are rarely debated in the House a ...

was passed by the British House of Commons paying tribute to Kate ter Horst.

Cultural depictions

Ter Horst narrated the opening montage of the 1977 film '' A Bridge Too Far'' in English. In the movie, she is played by Liv Ullmann.

References

1992 deaths Dutch people of World War II Female wartime nurses Women in World War II People from Amsterdam 1906 births Honorary Members of the Order of the British Empire Road incident deaths in the Netherlands World War II nurses {{Netherlands-bio-stub