Mrs M.G. Esveld-Strubbe

Den Haag 5 May 1880 – Utrecht 2 Jun 1966

About: Martina Gijsberta Strübbe, wife of Gerald Esveld and mother of Flip and Coen, in whose house at Amerongen Murphy and James Hardy stayed from 23 or 24 December 1944 to 2 January 1945. She gave her list of the men she housed to the Americans herself, on 28 May 1945.

Unit or role: Housewife: zonder beroep (no occupation) in Dodewaard's letter of 1953 (the letter). On her form for the Americans she writes that she "helped (especially the sons)" (p. 3).

Where: Amerongen; Overstraat B 360 (the family's house, scan 7); known to the Allied men at Overstraat 360 (p. 3).

Evidence: ✓ her birth and death deeds (the scans, read on the images; birth transcript and death transcript); ✓ her statement and her form; ✓ the Americans' Grade 5 list and the British helper index; ✓ the Gemeente Dodewaard's letter of 1953 and her husband's death record (Nationaal Archief 2.19.255.01, 41478A; the records).

✓ She was born at Den Haag on 5 May 1880 at six in the morning, the daughter of Ernst Arie Strubbe, a coachman (koetsier) of 38, and Johanna Christina de Rooy, who had no occupation, as her father declared in person on 7 May with two coachmen as witnesses (the birth deed, deed 1670, read on the image; transcript). Her own form of 1945 gives "5.5.80 The Hague" (p. 3).

She married Gerald Esveld at Wageningen on 4 November 1908, aged 28 (the marriage index spells her mother Johanna Christiana de Rooij), and their daughter Johanna Jacomina, born in 1912, died at Utrecht in 1940 (the index entries). Their sons were Berend "Flip", born in 1910, and Gerrit Herman "Coen", born on 2 May 1920 (the records). Her form gives two children, aged 35 and 25 (p. 3); the husband's age on it is 61, ✓ right for a man born on 16 December 1883.

Murphy stayed with Mrs Esveld from 24 December to 2 January, by her own account. ✓ She gave it to the Americans herself, on 28 May 1945:

MERPHY came down near ARNHEM on 17 Sep. … then he was taken by Louis (Gerrit ESVELD) to Mrs. ESVELD. He stayed there until 2 Jan, and was then taken away by Louis and Kik for a crossing, which did not succeed.

— US National Archives · RG 498, helper file of Mrs G.H. Esveld-Strubbe, Amerongen · answer to question 10, 28 May 1945 · her statement

The statement goes on: "James, or Jim, was working with the Red Cross. He also landed in ARNHEM and after a time in hospital at APELDOORN, was with Tom MERPHY all the time" (p. 5). The slips are the interviewer's or her memory's: she has him a lieutenant and down on 17 September, where Hardy has "Pte. MURPHY" and Murphy's service list has North-West Europe beginning on 18 September, the date Walsh of the same battalion gives for his take-off, and Hardy has the move to Amerongen on the 23rd (Hardy; the service list; Walsh; Mrs Esveld's account). ◐ "Louis" is her son Gerrit, Coen, on the interviewer's "Louis (Gerrit ESVELD)" and Leendert Cornelisse's "Koen ESVELD" of her household (Leendert Cornelisse, p. 6), and "Kik" is Freerk Stob of Overstraat B 374, a few doors along the same street, whose statement of the same day, numbered next but one to hers, has "Tom MERPHY and James (Jim)" taken by him to Lienden "at the beginning of January" (his statement, p. 4). ◐ Hardy's "KOEN and KEEK" are Coen and Kik, the two who took the pair to the ferry on the afternoon of 2 January (James Hardy; Coen Esveld). Murphy himself names "the Esveldt family in Amerongen" in his memoir (p. 12).

The Americans' summary of her file lists "Lt. Tom Merphy, England", "Lt. Ross Stoner, RAF" and "K. Bucklry", who were housed "for period of 5 days to 3 weeks" (p. 2). Her statement adds that she "received no financial support, and fed the Tommies out of her own food store" (p. 5). Her husband's and sons' part is on Gerald's page, Flip's and Coen's.

Her statement lists three more:

• Ross Stoner, 2/Lt RAAF (the summary above has "Lt." and RAF), a Mosquito man of Allenby Gardens, Adelaide: brought by her son Gerrit, he stayed 2 or 3 weeks and "was taken away by Chris in March for a crossing" (p. 5).
• "Bill", parachutist, Scotland. He "came down about 18 Sep near ARNHEM", was wounded, wandered with dysentery, and reached "the house of the de MEENT family at 't Woud, near BARNEVELD", where he stayed a long time. Then "on 9 Jan he arrived with Henk and Wim at the house of Mrs. ESVELD": he stayed two weeks, went for a short time to "ESVELD Jr.", came back, and stayed until about the middle of February, when he was taken to some other people (p. 5).
• K. Buckley, "from mid March until 25 March" (p. 5); Mrs Cornelisse's account has "K. Bucklry", an RAF gunner, brought to Chris "by van Esveld, about 25 March", who stayed until the liberation (the Cornelisse-van Brink file, p. 4).

"Bill" turns up in other forms, and they do not agree. Flip's statement has a Bren gunner "Bill" arriving at his own house in mid-January "with Wim and Henk from BARNEVELD", staying about a month, going "via the farmer to G.H. ESVELD Sr. at AMERONGEN", and the Biesbosch crossing failing (Flip's file, p. 7); his later table has "Bill" from Arnhem, "London, England", 42 days, received from "v.d. Mheen, Lunteren" (p. 10). Van Dooleweerd of Amerongen has "Bill" brought to him by Hoogland at the end of February or the beginning of March, with "see supplement No. 00261, of Mrs. ESVELD-STRUBBE", for five or six days until collected for the crossing by Wim Bussink (his file, p. 7). Hoogeveen has "Bill Gordon, a Scott from London, R.A.F.", arriving at Van Dooleweerd's "from Flip beginning February" (his statement, p. 5). ◐ Hers and Flip's are very probably one man: the first name, the Arnhem landing, "Wim and Henk" and the Esveld houses recur, and Pte William Gordon of 156 Para is our match for him, not exact. Whether the man on Van Dooleweerd's form (it cross-refers to her statement) and Hoogeveen's "Bill Gordon" are that man, or another, or two men run together, is left open on Gordon's page: ⚠︎ his service (parachutist or RAF) and his dates in February are not settled, and no surname is given outside Hoogeveen's. ◐ Her "Henk and Wim" of the "de MEENT family" are very probably the brothers Henk and Wim van der Mheen of Lunteren, "de MEENT" the same name heard the way Hendrik van Loenen spelt it: Flip's table has Bill from "v.d. Mheen, Lunteren" (above), the Dodewaard police report of 29 June 1945 has the two brothers in hiding with her husband, the garage owner (the note), and their mother's form passes a "William Gordon, Par. R." from her house to "Amerongen, capt. H. v. Loenen" (her file, p. 4). Flip's statement, the police report and van Loenen's list tie the brothers to Coen's last journey.

Her younger son Gerrit Herman, "Coen", was found dead at Dodewaard on 29 June 1945 and buried at Amerongen (Amerongen's answer to the Foundation has 2 July; the family's notice of 30 June announced the funeral for 5 July; the notice, signed by her husband), and the Gemeente Dodewaard's letter to the War Graves Foundation names his parents as "Esveld, Gerrit Hendrik, garagehouder" and "Strübbe, Martina Gijsberta, zonder beroep" (no occupation), both living at Amerongen (the letter; Coen Esveld).

✓ The Americans gave her the Eisenhower certificate: their Netherlands Grade V list has "(1216) ESVELD-STRUBBE, M. G., Overstraat 360, Amerongen", next to her son "(1215) ESVELD, Jr. B. A." of Leersum (the list, p. 48). Her folder is marked "GRADE 5, Conf 16 20.11.45" and the typed summary is dated 28 November 1945 (p. 1; p. 2). ✓ The British helper index has "ESVELD-STRUBBE, M.G.", certificate 22353, Overstraat 360, Amerongen, Grade 5, between her son Berend Albert's line and Heimen van Esveld's (sheet E/5, read on the image; the grade column sits level with the address column).

✓ She died at Utrecht at ten past five in the afternoon of 2 June 1966, aged 86, ten months before her husband. The death was registered at Utrecht the next day on the declaration of Willem Reede, an undertaker of Amerongen aged 47, who stated he knew of it from his own knowledge. The deed has her born at 's-Gravenhage, living at Amerongen, "gehuwd met: Esveld, Gerrit Hendrik" (married to him), the daughter of Ernst Arie Strübbe and Johanna Christina de Rooy, both dead (the death deed, Utrecht 1966, deed B 551, read on the image; transcript). The deed does not say where in Utrecht she died. Her husband died at Amerongen on 14 April 1967, and his death record names her, as "partner" in the index (Gerald Esveld; the record); she had died the year before, so that is the widower's entry, not a sign that she was alive.

⚠︎ The Sunday Post of 23 January 1972 says her son Flip "inherited the sideboard when his mother died" and, while varnishing it, found Murphy's name and home town on a slip under a drawer, which led him to write to the Town Clerk of Kelty. It is the paper's account alone: the slip is not held, and the cutting is a niece's copy with no masthead (the cutting; Flip's page).

• How her mother's name is spelt. "Johanna Christiana de Rooij" in the index of her marriage of 1908; "Johanna Christina de Rooy" in the birth deed of 1880 and in the death deed of 1966, both read on the scans, where the index of the birth has "Johanna Christina de Rooij" (the birth deed; the death deed; the index records). ◐ One woman; the two deeds agree, and the marriage index is the odd one out.
• How her own name is spelt. "Strubbe" in the birth deed, the marriage index and her husband's death record; "Strübbe" in her death deed, in Dodewaard's letter and in the index of Flip's birth. Her second name is "Gysberta" in the birth deed and "Gijsberta" in every later record.
• When Murphy came. She has him with her from 24 December; Hardy has the two moved to the Esvelds after dark on 23 December (Hardy). ◐ Hardy's report was taken down on 13 January, eleven days after 2 January; hers, nearly five months after it.
• Where Murphy came from. She has him "sheltered by farmers on the Veluwe, first at a little place near AMERSFOORT until 24 Dec"; the farm was Jacob Veerman's at Klein Achterveld, in Barneveld municipality (Jacob Veerman).
• Who took the pair to the ferry. Her "Louis and Kik", Hardy's "Koen and Keek", Flip's "Crossed them personally" claim: see Coen's page.

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