Pim van Boetzelaer van Oosterhout

Pim van Boetzelaer van Oosterhout (1946)

Carel Godfried Willem Hendrik "Pim" Baron van Boetzelaer van Oosterhout (born November 17, 1892 in Amersfoort , Province of Utrecht ; † May 20, 1986 in Ubbergen , Province of Gelderland ) was a Dutch diplomat and non-party politician who served in the first cabinet of Prime Minister Louis Beel held the post of Foreign Minister from 1947 to 1948 and as such was one of the signatories of the Brussels Pact of March 17, 1948, which represented an important step in military cooperation in Western Europe .

Life

Studies and diplomatic career

Van Boetzelaer van Oosterhout was a son of Hendrik Johan Herman Baron van Boetzelaer van Oosterhout, who was, among other things, mayor of Leusden and Stoutenburg . After attending school, he began studying law in the Netherlands at the University of Utrecht and the University of Amsterdam , which he graduated on February 15, 1921.

He then entered the diplomatic service and was initially an attaché at the embassy in Denmark on February 9, 1923 and a short time later between 1923 and 1924 an official in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. This was followed from 1925 to 1926 to be used as second secretary at the embassy in the Kingdom of Romania , and between April 17, 1926 and 1929 as First Secretary at the Embassy in the United States before he 1929-1930 First Secretary at the embassy in Mexico was . After he was Legation Councilor at the Legation in Belgium between January 25, 1930 and December 1934 , he served as Legation Councilor at the German Legation from December 3, 1934 to May 1940 .

Van Boetzelaer van Oosterhout's great-uncle Willem Hendrik de Beaufort was also Foreign Minister between 1897 and 1901

After a brief assignment from May to August 1940 as head of the Department of Diplomatic and Legal Affairs in the State Department with the rank of Envoy Extraordinary, van Boetzelaer van Oosterhout became Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary in the USA in August 1940 and remained there until April 1946.

Foreign Minister and Ambassador to France

After his return to the Netherlands, van Boetzelaer van Oosterhout was first head of the Political Department of the Foreign Ministry in April 1946, before he became Foreign Minister (Minister van Buitenlandse Zaken) in the first cabinet of Prime Minister Louis Beel on July 3, 1946 and this office until exercised on August 7, 1948. As such, was one of the signatories of the Brussels Pact of March 17, 1948, which represented an important step in military cooperation in Western Europe and was the forerunner of military alliances such as the Western European Union (WEU) and NATO . After leaving the government, he was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Order of the Dutch Lion on October 13, 1948 .

He was then initially from September to December 1, 1948 an official of the Foreign Service, first class, and then received his accreditation as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador to France on December 1, 1948 . He remained in this top diplomatic post until December 1, 1957. For his services there he was also commander of the Order of the Dutch Lions on April 29, 1954 .

His marriage to US citizen Ethel Carver Litchfield in Paris on June 28, 1923 resulted in two sons and three daughters.

Van Boetzelaer van Oosterhout was also a nephew of Willem Hendrik de Beaufort , who was a member of both the First and Second Chambers of the States General and who also held the post of Foreign Minister in the cabinet of Prime Minister Nicolaas Pierson between 1897 and 1901 . One of his brothers-in-law was Herman Theodoor s'Jacob , who was married to his sister Wilhelmine Elisabeth Charlotte Baronesse van Boetzelaer. He was not only mayor of Loosdrecht and Bussum , but between 1924 and 1934 he was also the queen's commissioner in the province of Utrecht .

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