At a function in Kanchanaburi on 15th Jan 2010 the Queen of the Kingdom of the Netherlands (via her Ambassador in Thailand) bestowed an honour on Rod Beattie for his years of work in researching and helping all families connected with the Thai-Burma Railway, including the 17,000 Dutch PoWs involved, 2,700 of whom died.
Rod has been made a “Knight in the Order of Orange-Nassau”. (The “Order of Orange-Nassau” can be considered approximately equivalent to the “Order of the British Empire” in the UK)
This award is a Royal Honour in the Netherlands, conferred on people who deserve recognition and high appreciation from society for the special way in which they have carried out their particular activities.
We feel this is a very fitting personal tribute to Rod who has devoted a significant number of years of his life to this work and it is also wonderful recognition of the role of TBRC and its team.
This is great celebration coming after the end of a highly successful research year for TBRC and on the eve of the 7th Anniversary of our opening (20th January 2003).