‘May he walk in peace’ – A tribute to Prince Bernhard of The Netherlands (1911 – 2004)

Iain Douglas-Hamilton remembers a man who fought long and hard to advance the conservation cause in Africa – and around the world. Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands died of cancer on 1 December 2004 at the age of 93. While he had a long and distinguished career in Europe’s turbulent 20th Century, he will be remembered in Africa primarily as one who tirelessly promoted the wildlife cause over many years. All his life he used a position of privilege to fight for matters of principle. As a German Prince he married Princess Juliana of the Dutch royal family. When Germany invaded his adopted country he backed the Free Dutch at a time when it looked as though the Nazis could never be defeated. He became a Dutchman among the Dutch, and a symbol of the resistance. And when the allies finally triumphed he never forgot the ordinary people who had joined the resistance.