Henry Hugenholtz

I have I Have been told that a short description of my life may help to bring a closer understanding and relationship between myself and my readers.  So here goes. 

I was born in Saigon, in what was then called French Indo-China on the 26^th January 1928.  I lived on a Sugar Plantation 650 km North of Saigon, of which my Father was the Managing Director and quarter shareholder. 

Both my parents were Dutch and I have a sister Tily living in the south France, who is four years older than myself, whom I am very close to, despite the fact that we were separated for fourteen years during the Second World War, a younger brother John in Jeddah [having worked there for the past 16 years in Saudi Arabia] and another sister Florence [Fif] living in Australia.

When I was five years old my Mother left my Father, and took me with her, touring the Dutch East Indies, Sumatra and Batavia then Europe, as a Concert Pianist. 

My sister Tily remained with my Father and we didn’t meet up again until 1949.

My mother remarried and was pregnant with my brother, John, when we left Lyon in France to escape from the Germans in June 1940.  We, my mother, stepfather and myself aged twelve, arrived in Bordeaux to catch a freight ship sailing for South Africa [my stepfather had pre-arranged our passage beforehand].  When we arrived at the dock there were three boats and we were to board the first one to leave, but they could not leave until the following morning because of the tide. That night we drove into the nearby woods and slept in our car, watching bullets flying overhead, which glowed red in the night sky like fireworks streaming overhead in all directions, mainly coming from the North.  In the morning we abandoned our car and made our way to the quay side. When we got there a row of Polish soldiers blocked our way and prevented everyone else from boarding the ship.

After a great deal of negotiation with them we were allowed to board the third ship to leave harbour.  It was a great relief to finally find ourselves leaving the French shore on our way to South Africa.  However, we were soon informed that the two ships which had left before us had been torpedoed, with no survivors, and that our ship had been commandeered by the British Navy and was now to be escorted to Plymouth by a British Destroyer.

When we arrived in Plymouth and were transported by buses to the Odeon Theatre, where we stayed the night. 

The following day we travelled to London, where we were put up in Hotel Forty, Bayswater.  So that is how I arrived in England.

It was there one night, that two bombs landed on either side of the Hotel and a third penetrated a large store, ‘Whiteleys’, the bombs exploded in the cellar, killing all those sheltering there.

A year later, my Mother evacuated me to Wynstones Boarding School near Gloucester.  My Uncle, who was the Captain of a Dutch destroyer, helped me finance my schooling in those early war years.

I met my wife Doreen in 1947 when I lived with my mother, stepfather and my little brother, John, in Sheen, South West London.

I married Doreen in 1949.  We had seven children:  Our first beautiful daughter, Franchesca, was born with Hdro-Encephalus, Spina-Bifida and twisted legs, she only lived ten days.  After that we had Two daughters then a son, then twin daughters and then another son.

In 1950 we left for Pernis, near Rotterdam, where I worked my way upto Still Man on a Caltex Oil Refinery.  Here our daughter, Angela was born in 1952.

We returned to England, Basildon, Essex, where I started work for the Vacuum Oil Refinery Company on Canvey Island.

I was on the Refinery when we had that particularly bad storm and flood in 1953. 

I recall that my little ‘Austin Seven’ car was totally immersed in the flood.  After the water had receded, I was amazed to turn the key and the dripping wet car started and I drove home.  Our second daughter Carol was born in Basildon in 1954.

We had to return to England from Holland before three years elapsed in order for me to be able to apply for my British nationality.  This I needed to do, in order to work for Bapco Oil Refinery in Bahrain in the Persian Gulf  [a British Protectorate].   I then worked there from 1955 to 1960, our first son, Stef, was born there in 1959. 

At this time my Father had died and left me a little money, so we decided to go back to England and send our two daughters to Michael Hall School [another Rudolf Steiner establishment] in Forest Row, near East Grinstead, West Sussex.

I opened a Travel & Chalet Letting Agency and took on a Manager to run the Travel side of it, he sold me out. 

I eventually bought three properties [with 100 % mortgages] in East Grinstead, which I turned into self-contained flatlets and let them out to Scientologists.

My twin daughters, Martine and Michele were born in 1960.  They and our second son Rick, born in 1963, were all born in East Grinstead.

In 1968 the Labour Government stopped Scientologists from entering this country and so I lost all my tenants, as did many others who were also letting their properties in the neighbourhood. 

Unable to let my flatlets, I became bankrupt and was left penniless.  We lost our home and were forced to move, leaving everything we owned and had to find alternative, furnished accommodation. 

I was unable to obtain financial help.  The Authorities considered the rent of £15 per week at that time [for a three bed roomed furnished house] as exorbitant, even though we had to live somewhere,  They didn’t even consider helping me out with money for food [not like today’s world].

I undertook a number of jobs; as a Salesman, with different companies, selling Freezer Food package deals, Unit Trust Insurances and selling Vending Machines. 

After a number of years, I finally started a Maintenance and Building firm of my own.  Both my sons joined me under our newly-adopted British name.

My mother died on the 23^rd. January 1987.

Doreen by then was very proficient with her automatic writing, as previously mentioned in our holiday tour of 1973. She picked up a message from my mother two months after her death, as follows;  (her words)…. Iieverd = darling …. Coco = my nick name.

21 Mar. 1987  09.30 am

“Lieverd  Coco, I cannot express sufficiently how life is beyond the living world, the total ecstasy, the fulfilment, love and all that is in life’s creation and far more, one surely has to believe in the joy of the other world.  The creation of GOD is incredible.  To be here after all my misgivings is an unbelieving gift, nothing can describe the total peace and beauty.

To be with you again if only in spirit and to be able to be part of you whilst we are on different planes is a great joy in itself, my love for you has never been stronger and to be able to share your life as I have never done before, to be able to be in your home and to guide you as much as I can.

To see my grandchildren and great-grandchildren in their own surroundings, is something I have not been able to do, which is a great joy to me.

My love for you will always be around you, my project for you is that I will try to ease the burdens of your life.  Life for both of us on the earthly plane was not too easy in the early days, but I hope that we were richer in many other ways, you might not have thought or felt it but I have always had a special deep love for you, as I grew older and through my health became more relaxed, I tried to channel those thoughts to you.  You are the only one of my three children that has this special bond in our beliefs and so this in itself made us very close. 

On this side I have met many friends and family, even your father, definitely a changed man, may I say for the better.  Oom Piet is still on this plane, Ooma your grandmother, is preparing for her new life on earth.

I must leave you now, give yourself and the children a lot of love, hugs and kisses especially for the new baby (Hayden), a lovely little soul.  Dag Schatje     Mammie. “

        Sadly my wife Doreen died of cancer in 1998.  Later I re-married. I had first met Anne in 1942 when we were both pupils at Rudolf Steiner’s ‘Wynstones School’ in Brookthorpe, near Gloucester.  After leaving  school we lost contact. I met her again in  December 1998 and we married six months later.

Well that is enough about me and mine.