Francien de Zeeuw

Luitenant ter zee der 2de klasse Francien de Zeeuw (Terneuzen, 19 May 1922 – Middenbeemster, 8 September 2015) was a Dutch resistance fighter during the Second World War and the first female member of the Dutch armed forces.

Life

De Zeeuw was the middle of three children born to a house painter from Terneuzen in the Netherlands. She gained employment as a telephone operator and, following the German invasion of the Netherlands, she was in a position to over-hear military telephone traffic. She provided information to the resistance network and also operated as a courier, carrying ration stamps and firearms. She was detained on several occasions and, in 1944, evaded capture by moving through the front lines to meet up with Canadian forces.

A woman's service of the Royal Dutch Navy, (known as Marva) was established on 31 October 1944 and de Zeeuw is acknowledged as its first recruit. She served in the Far-East for three years – first at Colombo, arranging transport for the repatriation of Dutch servicemen, and then the Dutch East Indies working in a military post office. During this time, she fell in love with a soldier. As marriage to a lower rank was forbidden, she resigned from the service and returned to the Netherlands; however, her love died from yellow fever shortly after their return.