Aarnoud van Heemstra

Huis Zypendaal

He was a member of the Van Heemstra family and was born in Vreeland, the son of Wilhelmina Cornelia (née de Beaufort, 1843–1927) and Willem Hendrik Johan Baron van Heemstra (1841–1909), the mayor of Loenen. Through his maternal side, he had distant English and French ancestry. He also had an older brother, Hendrik Philip Jacob Baron van Heemstra (1867–1931). He studied at Utrecht University where he obtained his doctorate in law in 1896. He established himself in Arnhem where he was prosecuting lawyer and subsequently deputy judge at the district court. In 1902 he was appointed official at the district court in Roermond and in October 1909 deputy public prosecutor at the arrondissement court of Maastricht. In 1910 he became mayor of the city of Arnhem, following Antonie Röell and preceding Dirk Jan de Geer. In 1920 Wilhelmina of the Netherlands appointed him governor of Suriname, from which he retired in 1928. Living in the Arnhem region, he redacted a political economic magazine until 1940.

Refusing to collaborate with the NSB during World War II, the German occupiers confiscated many of his possessions, including estates, bank accounts, and even jewelry. He was forced to move out of the estate Kasteel Zijpendaal outside Arnhem to Oosterbeek and later Velp. In 1942, his son-in-law Otto graaf van Limburg Stirum was executed in retaliation for a sabotage by the resistance movement. After this, his widowed daughter Miesje (1897–1987) and his divorced daughter Ella (1900–1984) lived with him in Velp, along with Ella's youngest child, the future actress Audrey Hepburn (1929–1993).

Van Heemstra died in Oosterbeek.

In 1896, he married Elbrig Willemine Henriette Baroness van Asbeck (1873–1939), who was a granddaughter of Dirk van Hogendorp. They had six children, five daughters and one son:

• Wilhelmina Cornelia (Miesje) Baroness van Heemstra (1897–1987), married to Otto Graaf van Limburg Stirum (1893–1942)
• Geraldine Caroline Baroness van Heemstra (1898–1965)
• Ella Baroness van Heemstra (1900–1984), mother of actress Audrey Hepburn
• Marianne Jacqueline Baroness van Heemstra (1903–1991), lady-in-waiting to Princess and later Queen Juliana of the Netherlands
• Willem Hendrik Johan Baron van Heemstra (1907–1978)
• Arnoudina Johanna Baroness van Heemstra (1911–1975)

In 1947, eight years after the death of his first wife, Van Heemstra married a second time, to Anna Eliza Roosenburg (1901–1988). They remained married until his death in 1957.

• Knight of the Order of the Netherlands Lion
• Commander of the Order of Orange-Nassau
• Grand Officer of the Order of the House of Orange
• Knight of the Order of St John in the Netherlands

• HEEMSTRA, Aarnoud Jan Anne Aleid baron van (1871–1957) at historici.nl. (in Dutch)