Pieter Scharroo

Pieter Scharroo was a career military officer who joined the Dutch Army in 1901 and retired in 1941 as a colonel in the Corps of Royal Engineers. During this time, he was also a lecturer in hydraulic engineering at the Royal Military Academy. After his retirement, he worked as a technical consultant in civil engineering and hydraulics. He wrote treatises on hydraulic engineering and the construction of sports facilities.

In sports Scharroo served as President of the Netherlands Athletic Federation from 1915-28, and joined the Netherlands Olympic Committee in 1915. He served as Vice-President of the NOC from 1921-24, and then became acting President for one year upon the death of Frederik, Baron van Tuyll van Serooskerken. In 1924 he was also co-opted onto the IOC, where he would serve as a member until 1957, when he resigned and was made an honorary member. Scharroo was also a Vice-President of the Organizing Committee for the 1928 Olympic Games in Amsterdam, where he was involved in the construction of the Amsterdam Olympic Stadium.

Scharroo’s most notable military career occurred in May 1940 at the Battle of Rotterdam. He and his forces held out against the Germans for four days before Scharroo was forced to surrender after a German bombing raid had destroyed much of the city and 800 many civilians. He then worked for two years to help re-build the city but was taken as a prisoner-of-war with other surviving Dutch officers, but he was released after three months, because of illness, and returned to the Netherlands.