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Hilda Biemold (1926 - 2014)

Hilda Biemold
Born [location unknown]
Ancestors ancestors
Wife of [private husband (1920s - 2020s)]
Mother of [private child (1940s - unknown)], [private son (1950s - unknown)], [private son (1950s - unknown)] and [private son (1950s - unknown)]
Died at age 87 in Mill Creek Care Centre, Barrie, ON, Canadamap
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Profile last modified | Created 4 Oct 2014
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Biography

From the Holland Marsh to Rockcliffe Park

By Julie Christiaanse

Hilda Biemold was working on her father’s vegetable farm in the Holland Marsh when, in the fall of 1944, her parents received word that “a lady from Toronto” was coming to talk to their seventeen year- old daughter and a friend. The young women were needed in Ottawa where Princess Juliana of the Netherlands lived with her three children, the princesses Beatrix, Irene, and Margriet, who had been born in Ottawa in January 1943. When the Germans invaded the Netherlands in May 1940, the Royal Family had fled and taken refuge in England. Once safely there, Princess Juliana and the children went on to Ottawa, Canada, where they remained until the end of the war. (From 1942 to 1944, Juliana’s husband, Prince Bernhard, who stayed in the U.K., flew as a pilot with the Royal Air Force. He also helped organize the Dutch resistance movement and acted as personal secretary for Queen Wilhelmina who also stayed in London during the war years.) The princesses Beatrix, Irene, and Margriet (in carriage) Hilda doesn’t remember much of the interview with the Toronto lady. “I guess we passed the test,” she says. Soon the letter of employment came and train tickets to Ottawa were provided. Her friend left for Ottawa before Hilda did, because employment with royalty or not, Hilda was needed at home to finish the harvest work. Hilda was excited. She had never been on a train before. “It was my first real time away from home,” she says.

Arriving in Ottawa where she was met by a “detective,” she became more and more nervous. What was she going to do when she met the princess? It turned out Princess Juliana came to the kitchen that evening with baby Margriet in her arms. “She shook my hand, said a few kind words, something about hoping I would like it here, and that was it.” After that Hilda saw Princess Juliana – who, she says, was friendly, dressed plainly and seemed down to earth – almost every day. She had arrived at Stornoway, now the official residence of the Leader of the Opposition, in the very upscale Rockcliffe Park neighbourhood. The address may have been prestigious, but she remembers the house as old, big and always cold!

Besides Hilda and her friend Catherine Winter, the others employed in the household were a lady-inwaiting, who had a young daughter herself, a nurse, two sergeants, two “detectives,” and a cook (“Just call me ‘Skip’,” because he had been a cook on a submarine). Hilda recalls that Princess Juliana had a habit of trying to evade the ever present detectives, by leaving the house by a back door and going for a walk by herself. But her protectors would always notice and follow her at a discreet distance.

Hilda saw Prince Bernhard a few times when he came for a visit. He would come to the kitchen and give the cook some advice, on cooking lobster for example The young women’s work, for which they were paid ten dollars a week, consisted of ordinary cooking and cleaning, and serving in the dining rooms. Hilda would serve in the small dining room off the kitchen where the personnel ate, and Catherine in the larger, main dining room of the royal family, later in the evening. “But I always helped her with the dishes,” says Hilda, and, calling herself a country bumpkin, wondered why so many different dishes were used.

Their uniform consisted of a plain grey dress and a white apron, but on a few special occasions, e.g. at a cocktail party, they wore a pretty light green dress and a half white apron. Before that time, Hilda had not known what a cocktail party was.

On their time off, Wednesday afternoons, they would often go to the arena where there was free skating. Going to church was their other weekly outing. Twice during their stay at Stornoway they went to church with the princess in a limousine, the girls in front with the driver and the princess in a back seat, an arrangement Hilda thought strange.

At Christmas in 1944 they were invited to the cold, living room where they received a photograph, a pair of stockings, a ten dollar bill, and a glass of champagne. Hilda was not sure whether she liked the champagne. The girls were allowed a week off at New Year’s, a welcome respite from the place where they wore a sweater all the time, and from the homesickness that had come upon them. No doubt, for Hilda, the absence from her beau, Sierk Rupke, with whom she had only letter contact, was also a factor. Hilda gained more than twenty pounds in the months she was in Ottawa. The food was delicious and the cook would always pile it on their plates. Her test came when the cook wanted a week off and asked Hilda to take over. She was nervous, but thanks to the notes he had left behind, made it through that week.

The girls must have made a good impression in the royal household. “We had learned to work hard at a young age,” says Hilda. Nevertheless, at the end of about six months, during which it seemed to snow just about every day, Hilda was glad to go home. For one, she had to get ready for the field work that was awaiting her again. Looking back on her time in Stornoway, Hilda says, “I was thinking, right now I’m glad to be back home, but later I can tell my children, ‘Your mother worked for a

princess!” �
This profile is part of the Holland Marsh, Ontario One Place Study.

Sources

  1. Vandevis-11 Dr. Ted, Personal Recollection.
  2. http://www.ancestry.com
  3. Article on Hilda Biemold written by and published: Christiaanse, J. (2009) Tollendale Tales, Barrie, ON, Canada. No. 49.




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This profile should either be open or set to public if we are going to link to it from the portal.

P.S. You title is there 3.3 although I may create another section just for nobility.

posted by Melissa McKay

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Categories: Holland Marsh, Ontario One Place Study