Eelco Van Kleffens

Dutch jurist, politician and UN diplomat.

He was born in an old Frisian family of jurists and magistrates. His father Henricus Cato van Kleffens (8 November 1861 6 AM, Dokkum - 30 July 1942, Arnhem) was a prosecutor, who married trice.

On 15 September 1890, he married in Groningen, Jeannette Fresina Veenhoven (18 February 1864 8 AM, Hoogezand - 17 July 1906 3 AM, Groningen). They got four children: A stillborn daughter that died 12 July 1893 at 8 PM in Heerenveen. Eelco, the diplomat of this entry. A daughter Gesina Jantina (23 December 1896, Heerenveen - 31 March 1930 5h30, Amsterdam) and Adrianus van Kleffens (14 October 1899 10 PM Nijehaske- 2 August 1973, 2 August 1973, De Steeg), who became a judge at the European Court of Justice from 1952 to 1958.

On 25 May 1908, the father married in Leiden Sabine Johanna Janke van Ilpsema Vinckers (6 December 1861, Appingedam - 18 October 1911, Den Haag). On 17 April 1913, he married in Den Haag Anna Margaretha de Graaff (4 February 1875, Haarlem - 17 April 1943, Velp).

Van Kleffens followed in his childhood his father along its ranks as deputy prosecutor of Groningen and Heerenveen (till 1905) to The Hague. In Heerenveen he met Rudolph Cleveringa, both would become PhD jurists in Leiden on the same day (16 January 1919). He studied Law in Leiden from 17 September 1913 until 12 June 1917 (exams). He dissertated under M.J.M, van Eysinga on the legal relations between the Netherlands and Japan: "De internationaalrechtelijke betrekkingen tussen Nederland en Japan (1605-heden)". In 1609 the Dutch were granted extensive trading rights and set up a Dutch East India Company trading outpost at Hirado, Japan.

At that time he worked for the just established League of Nations. In 1920, he accepted a position as the executive secretary of the Royal Dutch Shell Group in London.