Kate ter Horst MBE (born 6 July 1906,

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

– 21 February 1992, Oosterbeek) was a Dutch housewife and mother who tended wounded and dying Allied soldiers during the

Battle of Arnhem The Battle of Arnhem was a battle of the Second World War at the vanguard of the Allied Operation Market Garden. It was fought in and around the Dutch city of Arnhem, the town of Oosterbeek, the villages Wolfheze and Driel and the vicini ...

. Her British patients nicknamed her the ''Angel of Arnhem''. Ter Horst was born Kate Anna Arriëns, daughter of Pieter Albert Arriëns and Catharina Maingay. She married Jan ter Horst, a lawyer from

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte'') is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the ''"N ...

, with whom she had six children. One of her daughters, Sophie, still resides in the family home in Oosterbeek.

Second World War

Kate ter Horst witnessed the landings by the

British 1st Airborne Division The 1st Airborne Division was an airborne infantry division of the British Army during the Second World War. The division was formed in late 1941 during the Second World War, after the British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, demanded an airb ...

at the beginning of

Operation Market Garden Operation Market Garden was an Allied military operation during the Second World War fought in the Netherlands from 17 to 27 September 1944. Its objective was to create a salient into German territory with a bridgehead over the River Rhine, ...

on 17 September 1944, noting the event in her diary. The goal of the operation was for the paratroopers to seize the bridges in and around

Eindhoven Eindhoven () is a city and municipality in the Netherlands, located in the southern province of North Brabant of which it is its largest. With a population of 238,326 on 1 January 2022,Nijmegen Nijmegen (;; Spanish and it, Nimega. Nijmeegs: ''Nimwèège'' ) is the largest city in the Dutch province of Gelderland and tenth largest of the Netherlands as a whole, located on the Waal river close to the German border. It is about 6 ...

and

Arnhem Arnhem ( or ; german: Arnheim; South Guelderish: ''Èrnem'') is a Cities of the Netherlands, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality situated in the eastern part of the Netherlands about 55 km south east of Utrecht. It i ...

. The plan called for the British XXX Corps to advance across these bridges and then push into the Ruhr Valley industrial area of Germany. However, the advance on Arnhem fell behind schedule, and the troops there were forced into a defensive pocket at Oosterbeek. Captain Randall Martin asked the ter Horsts permission to set up a regimental aid station in their house at the Benedendorpsweg in Oosterbeek. During the eight days of fighting, ter Horst tended to about 250 wounded British paratroopers herself. Some of her most famous actions in looking after the British troops included walking around her home reading the Bible to dying soldiers and finding water in the most unlikely places (such as the boiler and toilet) when, due to the large concentration of British troops, the house became a target. Ter Horst wrote about these experiences in a book called ''Cloud Over Arnhem''. Writing the foreword for the book, Arnhem veteran General Sir Frank King noted:

After the war

In November 1947, her eldest son, Pieter Albert, was killed by a leftover anti-tank mine in a meadow along the Rhine. She starred in '' Theirs is the Glory'', a film made directly after the war about the battle of Arnhem in which survivors were asked to re-enact the parts they played in the battle. In 1980, the British ambassador to the Netherlands decorated Kate and her husband as Honorary Members of the Most Excellent

Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

. In 1992, Kate ter Horst died after she was struck by a car outside her home. Jan died on 1 August 2003 at the age of 98. The Angel of Arnhem

Following her death, an

Early Day Motion In the Westminster parliamentary system, an early day motion (EDM) is a motion, expressed as a single sentence, tabled by members of Parliament that formally calls for debate "on an early day". In practice, they are rarely debated in the House ...

was passed by the British House of Commons paying tribute to Kate ter Horst.

Cultural depictions

Ter Horst narrated the opening montage of the 1977 film '' A Bridge Too Far'' in English. In the movie, she is played by

Liv Ullmann Liv Johanne Ullmann (born 16 December 1938) is a Norwegian actress and film director. Recognised as one of the greatest European actresses of all time, Ullmann is known as the muse and frequent partner of filmmaker Ingmar Bergman. She acted in ...

References

1992 deaths Dutch people of World War II Female wartime nurses Women in World War II People from Amsterdam 1906 births Honorary Members of the Order of the British Empire Road incident deaths in the Netherlands World War II nurses {{Netherlands-bio-stub