Kate ter Horst

Kate ter Horst MBE (born July 6, 1906, Amsterdam – February 21, 1992, Oosterbeek) was a Dutch full-time housewife and mother who tended wounded and dying Allied soldiers during the Battle of Arnhem. 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, with whom she had six children. One of her daughters, Sophie, still resides in the family home in Oosterbeek.

World War II

During Operation Market Garden, the British 1st Airborne Division parachuted to capture the Arnhem bridge but was outgunned by the German army. Captain Martin asked the Ter Horsts permission to set up a regimental aid post in their house at the Benedendorpsweg in Oosterbeek. The family consented.

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 the house was at the center of conflict. Mrs. Ter Horst wrote about these experiences in a book called Cloud Over Arnhem.

Post-war

In November 1947 her oldest son, Pieter Albert, was killed by a left over 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.

In 1992, Kate ter Horst died after she was struck by a car outside her home. Jan died at the age of 98 in 2003.

Cultural depictions

In the 1977 film A Bridge Too Far her character is played by Liv Ullmann.