Lambertus “Bep” van Klaveren was one of the most celebrated Dutch sportsmen of the twentieth century. During the Second World War, however, his remarkable career brought him to Australia and, according to the recollections of VK-KNIL member Joan van Embden-Butler, to Camp Columbia at Wacol.
At the camp, the former Olympic champion conducted physical training for members of the Netherlands East Indies Women’s Corps. Joan also remembered him operating the camp’s Post Exchange, or PX store.
The Netherlands’ only Olympic boxing champion
Van Klaveren was born Lambertus Steenhorst in Rotterdam on 26 September 1907. He later adopted the surname of his stepfather.
At the 1928 Olympic Games in Amsterdam, he won the gold medal in the featherweight boxing division. He defeated Juan Muñoz of Spain, Frederick Perry of Britain and Harry Devine of the United States before overcoming Argentina’s Víctor Peralta in the final.
He remains the only Dutch boxer to have won an Olympic gold medal.
Van Klaveren became a professional boxer in 1929. Known internationally as “The Dutch Windmill”, he fought in Europe and the United States and became European lightweight champion in 1931 and European middleweight champion in 1938.
Wartime service and Australia
Van Klaveren was outside the occupied Netherlands during the Second World War. The International Olympic Committee’s biographical account records that he undertook overseas service with the Dutch Army.
Other biographical accounts differ over the precise branch and nature of his military service. What is clear is that he reached Australia during the war and used his sporting experience as a physical-training and boxing instructor.
He also developed a lasting personal connection with Australia. He married an Australian woman, Joan Hogan, and spent further periods in Australia after the war.
An Olympic champion at Camp Columbia
Joan van Embden-Butler was recruited into the VK-KNIL in Western Australia in 1944 and later lived and worked at Camp Columbia. In her recollections of camp life, she identified Bep van Klaveren as the man responsible for the women’s physical training.
Military life at Camp Columbia included drill, marching, instruction, assigned duties and organised physical exercise. For the VK-KNIL recruits, training under a former Olympic and European boxing champion must have been an unusual experience.
Joan also recalled that Van Klaveren operated the camp’s PX store. A Post Exchange supplied military personnel with personal items, refreshments and other goods that were not ordinarily issued by the Army. This placed him within the everyday social life of the camp as well as its physical-training programme.
At present, Joan’s account is the principal identified source for these particular Camp Columbia duties. Further military or administrative records may provide more information about his official posting and the period during which he worked at Wacol.
Return to boxing
Van Klaveren returned to the Netherlands after the war but subsequently spent another extended period in Australia. He eventually returned permanently to Rotterdam and, remarkably, resumed his professional boxing career in his late forties.
In 1955, at the age of 48, he fought the much younger Idrissa Dione for the European welterweight championship. Although he lost on points after fifteen rounds, his performance demonstrated the exceptional fitness and discipline that had characterised his career.
He retired permanently in 1956 and died in Rotterdam on 12 February 1992. A statue honouring him was unveiled in the city that year, and the annual Bep van Klaveren Memorial boxing tournament was established in 1993.
A distinctive Camp Columbia connection
Bep van Klaveren’s presence at Camp Columbia illustrates the variety of people brought together at Wacol by the war. A Rotterdam boxer who had become an Olympic and European champion found himself instructing Dutch and Netherlands East Indies servicewomen preparing for military duties in Australia and the recovering Indonesian archipelago.
His role may have been relatively modest compared with his international boxing achievements, but Joan’s recollection preserves an intriguing connection between Camp Columbia, the VK-KNIL and one of the Netherlands’ greatest sporting figures.
Sources and further reading
- Lambertus van Klaveren – International Olympic Committee
- Bep van Klaveren – professional boxing record
- Joan van Embden-Butler’s recollections and documents preserved by her family and used in CCHA and DACC research.
- VK-KNIL Women at Camp Columbia: Work, Daily Life and Personal Recollections