Nicholas Kampers (1873-1921)[]
De Athleet
Single WW1 British War medal, 2nd Lieutenant Nicholas (Nicolaas) Jan Kampers was a Dutch national who was born in Amsterdam on the 20th June 1873.
As a young man in Holland he undertook his compulsory military Service in Holland and 1890-91 he is noted as being an accomplished Speed Skater (he entered the world championship) and in 1893 he was the editor of “De Athleet” the in-house magazine for the Amsterdam athletics club.
He is noted as playing for the “Netherlands XI” the Dutch national team in 1894 as well as being Captain of Amsterdam Hockey club Holland's oldest hockey club and taking part in the Maastricht-Nijmegen-Maastricht cycling road race.
1895 he was working with the Birmingham based Nelson bicycle Company as there Amsterdam representative (He is noted a being a professional athlete and Footballer).
In 1896 he traveled from Southampton to Mozambique and then to the Cape returning to marry in 1898 Cornelia Maria Manikus in Katwijk, Holland (he divorced her in 1909 at Arnhem).
At some time in 1898 he left Holland and sailed for back to South Africa and according to his British army records he joined the Boer forces fighting the British serving as a Burgher in the Transvaal Republic serving under Generals Schoeman, Botha, Lemmer, De La Rey and De wet (needs confirmation).
Records show he leaves South Africa in 1903 and becomes a naturalised Englishman. In 1908 he is noted as having a Bankrupt notice against him living at the the Beechwood Club, Slough, in the county of Buckingham, formerly of Holyport House Dairy, and Poultry Farm, Holyport, in the county of Berks, of no occupation a formerly Dairyman?.
On the 8th September, 1914 he was gazetted temporary Second Lieutenants with the Interpreters and Intelligence corps and deployed to France on the 27th serving with the 36th Jacobs Horse on the 8th December he was told to proceed to the War Office in London and told his services were no longer required….his records show that a Mr Dacre Woffendin Jackson had written to Lord Kitchener stating that he was “The biggest scoundrel and thief he had ever met” and he owes money “all over the city”
The London Gazette notes Temporary Second Lieutenant N. J. Kampers relinquishes his commission Dated 24th December, 1914.
On the 25 October 1915 The Amsterdam “Tyd” newspaper states that one of its war correspondents in Belgian named Kampers, who has sent his paper various revelations which were disagreeable to the Germans, now been incarcerated in one of the forts at Liege.
In 1920 he was Chairman of the Cheshunt Cinema Company Limited and he died in Hammersmith in 1921 aged 48.