Reinder ("Rein") Boomsma (19 June 1879 – 27 May 1943) was a Dutch

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

, who played for

Sparta Sparta was a prominent city-state in Laconia in ancient Greece. In antiquity, the city-state was known as Lacedaemon (), while the name Sparta referred to its main settlement in the Evrotas Valley, valley of Evrotas (river), Evrotas rive ...

and the Dutch national team.

Club career

Boomsma was born in

Schagen Schagen () is a city and municipality in the northwestern Netherlands. It is located between Alkmaar and Den Helder, in the region of West Friesland (region), West Friesland and the province of North Holland. It received City rights in the Nethe ...

North Holland North Holland (, ) is a Provinces of the Netherlands, province of the Netherlands in the northwestern part of the country. It is located on the North Sea, north of South Holland and Utrecht (province), Utrecht, and west of Friesland and Flevola ...

in 1879, and moved to

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , ; ; ) is the second-largest List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city in the Netherlands after the national capital of Amsterdam. It is in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of South Holland, part of the North S ...

in 1888. He started to play football on the streets, where he was noticed by Kees van Hasselt. He joined

sometime around 1895. He would remain with the club until his retirement from football in 1907. A year later, in 1908, he was made honorary member of the club. Boomsma scored the only goal for Sparta in the league game against reigning champions

RAP Rapping (also rhyming, flowing, spitting, emceeing, or MCing) is an artistic form of vocal delivery and emotive expression that incorporates " rhyme, rhythmic speech, and ommonlystreet vernacular". It is usually performed over a backin ...

of Amsterdam on 29 October 1899. The match was the first charity game in the Netherlands, held to support the

Boer Boers ( ; ; ) are the descendants of the proto Afrikaans-speaking Free Burghers of the eastern Cape frontier in Southern Africa during the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. From 1652 to 1795, the Dutch East India Company controlled the Dutch ...

cause in the

Second Boer War The Second Boer War (, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, Transvaal War, Anglo–Boer War, or South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer republics (the South African Republic and ...

. The match grossed 1,201

guilders Guilder is the English translation of the Dutch and German ''gulden'', originally shortened from Middle High German ''guldin pfenninc'' (" gold penny"). This was the term that became current in the southern and western parts of the Holy Rom ...

and 51.5 cents.

International career

Boomsma was also part of the first

Netherlands national football team The Netherlands national football team ( or simply ''Het Nederlands elftal'') has represented the Netherlands in international men's football matches since 1905. The men's national team is controlled by the Royal Dutch Football Association (KNV ...

, that played against

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

on 30 April 1905. He also played for the Netherlands in the return match in Rotterdam on 14 May 1905. These would remain the only matches Boomsma played for the Netherlands.

Army career

Boomsma volunteered to join the

Royal Netherlands Army The Royal Netherlands Army (, KL) is the Ground warfare, land branch of the Netherlands Armed Forces. Though the Royal Netherlands Army was raised on 9 January 1814, its origins date back to 1572, when the was raised making the Dutch standing a ...

on 1 July 1898, and eventually became a

Colonel Colonel ( ; abbreviated as Col., Col, or COL) is a senior military Officer (armed forces), officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations. In the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, a colon ...

Infantry Infantry, or infantryman are a type of soldier who specialize in ground combat, typically fighting dismounted. Historically the term was used to describe foot soldiers, i.e. those who march and fight on foot. In modern usage, the term broadl ...

Apeldoorn Apeldoorn (; Dutch Low Saxon: ) is a municipality and city in the province of Gelderland in the centre of the Netherlands. The municipality of Apeldoorn, including the villages of Beekbergen, Loenen (Apeldoorn), Loenen, Ugchelen and Hoenderloo ...

from 1936-1939. During the mobilisation period in 1939, he was commander of Fortress Holland with the headquarters at

Jaarsveld Jaarsveld is a village in the Dutch province of Utrecht. It is a part of the municipality of Lopik, and lies about 7 km southwest of IJsselstein. Jaarsveld used to be a separate municipality, covering a large part of the current municipality ...

. After the invasion, he became the commander of the Ordedienst for "Gewest Veluwe" in the underground army. The main purpose of this underground army was to maintain contact with the Dutch government in exile in London by means of coded radio transmissions. Because of these activities he was imprisoned 3 times and questioned by the Gestapo. The first time from 28 March 1941 until 19 January 1942 at Scheveningen. The second time from 21 March 1942 until 16 May 1942, again at Scheveningen. The third and final time from October 1942, first imprisoned in Utrecht, then transferred to Vught and finally to

Neuengamme concentration camp Neuengamme was a network of Nazi concentration camps in northern Germany that consisted of the main camp, Neuengamme, and List of subcamps of Neuengamme, more than 85 satellite camps. Established in 1938 near the village of Neuengamme, Hamburg, N ...

near

Hamburg, Germany Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

where he died on 26 May 1943. His son, Evert Willem Boomsma, escaped to England on the 6 May 1941 in a stolen Fokker T8W seaplane landing at Broadstairs around 0830hrs. He actually carried with him the secret codes enabling London to communicate with the resistance. Willem remained in UK, serving with

No. 320 (Netherlands) Squadron RAF No. 320 (Netherlands) Squadron RAF was a unit of the Royal Air Force during World War II formed from the personnel of the Royal Netherlands Naval Air Service. History Formation Formed on 1 June 1940 at RAF Pembroke Dock, after flying from th ...

for the remainder of the war and never saw his father again. He returned to the Netherlands in 1951.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Boomsma, Rein 1879 births 1943 deaths Men's association football forwards Dutch colonels Dutch men's footballers Dutch military personnel killed in World War II Netherlands men's international footballers People from Schagen People who died in Neuengamme concentration camp Royal Netherlands Army officers Royal Netherlands Army personnel of World War II Sparta Rotterdam players Footballers from North Holland 20th-century Dutch sportsmen