BEIJNEN: ROWER AND RESISTANCE HERO

By Victor Laurentius

The Hague, July 1924: two to sit for an examination. When he changed over to students from Delft get off a mechanical engineering his results got better, but none the less he quitted his study prematurely in train at Hollandsche Spoor 1927. Station. One of them forgets his Beijnen scored much better as a rower. Immediately suitcase with rowing equipment. after arriving in Delft he joined the rowing The equipment travels on to association for students “Laga” (“Delftsche Amsterdam without its owner. In Studenten Roeivereeniging Laga”). He soon the meantime the hasty distinguished himself: during the period 1922-1927 he won 28 Dutch students change for the and foreign prizes. This made him the international train to most successfull pre-war Dutch rower. Paris. They don’t come Beijnen was the best teamrower of his further than the railway generation. But it was the station at the frontier: combination with W.H.E.K. (“Willy”) Rösingh which yielded the most Roosendaal. During a victories. The two victories in the passport control the coxed fours during the most important other student discovers Dutch rowingmatch, the Varsity, in he has forgotten his 1923 and 1925, cannot be left passport. The rowers of unmentioned. Laga, Teun Beijnen and The highlight of Beijnen’s rowing Willy Rösingh, are on career was his selection for the Olympic Games of 1924. On the Seine their way to Paris where at Argenteuil, he and Rösingh rowed they will row the coxless against the Frenchmen Bouton and pairs for the Piot on the 17th of July 1924. Four in the countries entered the coxless pairs: , , England and Games of the VIIIth Holland. Because Switzerland Olympiad. Anthonie Christiaan withdrew its team a ballot was This is how the legendary Anthonie “Teun” Beijnen necessary. It turned out to be to the Christiaan (“Teun”) Beijnen began his advantage of the Dutch. A race race for Olympic gold. Beijnen was born the 13th of between the French and the English had to decide June 1899 in the Dutch village Ophemert, situated which the other finalist would be. The French near the river Waal. He spent his youth in rowers won because one of the British rowers got a Beusichem, a village nearby. From 1914 till 1920, backache. he passed through highschool in and Utrecht. At the final the Dutch team appeared in their boat Subsequently he enrolled in 1920 at the Polytechnic “J.A. van der Vegte”. Soon after the starting shot School in Delft, where he studied electrical they achieved a tempo of 41 strokes a minute. engineering. He obviously didn’t like the subject, However, the headstart couldn’t be consolidated. for in three years time he did not make any attempt

38 JOURNAL OF OLYMPIC HISTORY - MAY 2002 After 1500 meters the boats went equally. But 200 that managed to marry miss Hrowath would win a meters before the finish Beijnen and Rösingh bottle of jenever. Beijnen won the bottle and he attempted a final sprint, which brought them a moved with his bride to his family home in Beusichem. victory with _ boatlenghth in front of the French. Beijnen was also a car-fanatic. In 1931 or 1932 he The victory was celebrated with champagne that took part in the Monte Carlo-Rally. As starting was offered by the losers. After a period of point he drew Warsaw. This prevented a victory abstinence (no alcohol, no tobacco) during the beforehand, because of the lousy roads. Beijnen had training, this gesture was certainly appreciated. The time and money for this kind of adventures. He had next day Beijnen and Rösingh got on the train to his own personal assets and the yields of his orchards Zürich with a bad hangover. In Zürich they would in Beusichem, the liqueur distillery “Beijnania” in The take part in the European Championships on the Hague and a timbermill in France. second of August. Again they won a golden medal, this time in the coxed pairs. The helmsman was Not many people know that Beijnen played an C.J.A. van Lummel. When Beijnen quitted his study important role in the Second World War. As a leader he was not allowed to row for Laga anymore. An of the resistance in Beusichem he was confronted exception was made in 1928. Beijnen was then with many allied soldiers who ended up behind added as a reinforcement to the Dutch eight, during enemy lines after the lost battle in Arnhem. Through the Olympic Games in Amsterdam. complicated escape routes they were led to their own lines. Beijnen wasn’t afraid to hide British Teun Beijnen didn’t owe his legendary status soldiers on his own attic. This was very courageous, entirely to his rowing capacities. After retiring as a because three quarter of the house was being used rower, he drew attention to himself several times. by the German Wehrmacht. The German general For example in 1930, when he married the famous Philippi used Beijnen’s house as his headquarters. operetta star Erna Hrowath. She was a Slovenian Just before the German capitulation, Philippi even singer who acted in Fritz Hirsch’s operetta welcomed the commander of the German troops in company. Other celebrities in this company were the Netherlands. Field Marshall Blaskowitz. It was Zarah Leander and Richard Tauber. In 1930, of great importance that Teun Beijnen was able to Beijnen and some of his friends saw one of their overhear the conversation between the two officers. performances in Paris. They made a bet: the one Blaskowitz told Philippi that he wanted to slow

Paris 1924 Olympic Games - Beijnen and Rösingh

JOURNAl OF OLYMPIC HISTORY - MAY 2002 39 down the negotiations with the Allies, because he Literature was afraid his army would become prisoners of war Delftsche Studenten Almanak 1925 - Delftsche Studenten Roeivereeniging “Laga” Eeuwboek. in Russia. Beijnen passed this military secret on as Gedenkboek verschenen ter gelegenheid van het 100-jarig fast as possible to the Allied Forces. So they knew bestaan van D.S.R.V. “Laga”. Delft 1976. - Horn, Nico van: ‘Een studentikoos koppel’. In: Goud. straightaway what the real intention of the Nederlandse Olympische kampioenen. Amsterdam 1996. negotiation partner was. Blaskowitz was ordered to - Gedenkboek 50-jarig bestaan Delftsche Studenten Wageningen on the 5th of May 1945. There he was Roeivereeniging Laga 1876-1926. Delft 1926. - Gedenkboek der Studenten Roeisport en van den Nederl. told clearly what the Allied capitulation demands Studenten Roeibond 1883-1932. Delft 1932. were. A day later he signed the capitulation. - Laurentius, Victor: ‘De Betuwe in Stelling. De Ondergrondse 1940-1945 & De stellingenoorlog en evacuaties 1944-1945’. Teun Beijnen died rather suddenly on July 13th Kesteren 2000. - Suyck, Luuk de: ‘Markante Beusichemmer won Olympisch 1949. His death was caused by a paralysed goud’. In: De Gelderlander, 15 januari 2000. heartmuscle. It was a result of his smoking - De Top 500. De Beste Nederlandse sporters van de 20e eeuw. Maarssen 1999. addiction. When there was a cigarette shortage during the war he even smoked his own grown tobacco mixed with beechtree leaves. All the inhabitants of Beusichem attended his funeral. A tangible remembrance of Teun Beijnen is being kept in the Olympic Museum in Lausanne: the more than 70 years old “J.A. van der Vegte”, the boat with which Beijnen and Rösingh won their Olympic medal.

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(2) Coubertin favoured separate recognition for They came to Boland’s house because he was an Ireland, as well as other small European countries M.P. (for South Kerry) and Acting Chief Whip of ruled by Empires prior to World War 1 (“Mé moires the Irish Party at the time. Olympique” pp. 120/121). It is interesting to see The purpose of the visit was to discuss and read the Ireland included in a list, published in 1913, of 35 (alleged) diaries of Roger Casement, which showed nations that were to be allowed to participate in the him to have been engaged in homosexual activities Games planned for Berlin in 1916. (see “Citius, in the Congo and the Amazon Basin. Altius, Fortius”, vol.4 no.1, p.11 – article by F. Kolá r and J. Kossl). Casement had just been sentenced to death for high treason, and the Irish Party was considering Addendum by Sé amus Ware : (based on an supporting calls for a reprieve or commuting of the interview in the 1980s. between Dr. Cyril White of death sentence, as happened in case of some leaders Dublin with Bridget Boland, daughter of John Pius of the 1916 Irish Easter Rising such as Eamon de Boland, double Olympic tennis champion in 1896). Valera. The “secret” diaries were used by the In August 1916, Bridget (then a young girl) British Government to try and dissuade prominent remembers that the children in the Boland family figures – Irish Catholic Bishops, Irish- American were sent to bed early because important visitors leaders, and the Irish Party – from such action, and were coming to see her father at his house in St. they succeeded. George’s Square, London. She later learned from The visitors stayed overnight, talking and reading her mother that the visitors were Herbert Asquith, documents with John Boland. The following British Prime Minister, and John Redmond, leader morning, Bridget heard Asquith thank her mother of the Irish Parliamentary Party in the House of for the hospitality. When she saw her father at Commons. breakfast, he looked “utterly drained”.

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