MY name is Nicholas ten Kleij and although I have a Dutch surname and have lived in Holland since 1947 I am, on my mother’s side, of Cornish descent and still think of myself as Cornish.
I am trying to get some information on the Dutch Nautical College in Falmouth, not the Dutch Naval College which was situated in Enys House just outside of Falmouth, where my father was a teacher during WWII after he was declared unfit for sea duty in 1941 because of problems with his eyes.
I know it existed, it was one of two founded by the Dutch Government in Exile, the other being in London, but all practical exams were taken in Falmouth. I know which building it was in, the Maenheere Hotel in Falmouth which was pointed out several time to me by my parents as “the place where daddy taught and where he met mummy”.
It is mentioned in three books that I know of and which are all three in my possession, one English and two Dutch, which give no further details on it. However all persons and organisations I have contacted to find out more have given me the same answer: they have never even heard of it!
These include, among many others, the Falmouth Town Manager, the Imperial War Museum, the National Maritime Museum Greenwich, the Dutch Institute for War Documentation, the Dutch National Archives and the Dutch Ministry of Defence, formerly the Dutch War Ministry}. The only one who could give me something resembling a positive answer was a gentleman at the National Maritime Museum Cornwall who knew of this school through an entry in a book about Falmouth in WWII, one of the three mentioned above which was already in my possession and which only mentions the school but gives no more information about it, but other than that he had never heard of it.
As I would like to find out more about this school do you happen to know of anyone who might be able to help me? Also any information on the Nicholas family from St Erth would be greatly appreciated.
I realise that I am asking quite a lot, but I am afraid that, unless I have overlooked something blindingly obvious, I have exhausted all possibilities, and I look forward to any reply.
Nick ten Kleij,
Verspronckweg 97,
2023BD Haarlem,
Netherlands,
ntk@compaqnet.nl
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