Pieter Sjoerds Gerbrandy

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Pieter Sjoerds Gerbrandy
Prime Minister of the Netherlands
In office 3 September 1940 – June 24, 1945
Preceded by	Dirk Jan de Geer
Succeeded by	Willem Schermerhorn
Born	April 13, 1885 Sneek, Netherlands
Died	September 7, 1961 The Hague, Netherlands
Political party	Anti-Revolutionaire Partij

Pieter Sjoerds Gerbrandy (13 April 1885 – 7 September 1961), Dutch politician, was born near Sneek, in The Netherlands.

From 1920 to 1930 he was a member of the States of Friesland for the Anti-Revolutionaire Partij (ARP), and became a professor at the Vrije Universiteit of Amsterdam (1930). Against his party's advice he was Minister of Justice (1939).

The royal family and many leading politicians had fled to London in 1940. There, they formed a government in exile. After De Geer's resignation and because of Gerbrandy's rejection of De Geer's defeatism, Queen Wilhemina appointed him as prime minister of the Dutch government in exile, serving in turn as minister of justice, the Colonies, and the general conduct of the War. On his initiative, the Dutch government started to broadcast a station that supplied the Dutch population with information from the free world.

In 1945, after the liberation of the south, he formed a new cabinet without socialists, which was alleged to be strictly subordinated to the military rule. He resigned after the total liberation. He strongly opposed the government's ‘Indonesian policy’, and in 1946–50 chaired the National Committee for the Maintenance of the Kingdom's Unity, which was against the separation of Indonesia and supported the idea of a Republic of the South Moluccas.

In 1948 he returned in the Dutch Parliament. However, because of his hot temper, he alienated himself from his party members. In 1956 he was member of a commission, which investigated the affair around Greet Hofmans. In 1959 he resigned as a member of Parliament, and two years later, he died in The Hague.