Raymond Pos
Surinamese diplomat and lawyer
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Raymond Henri Pos (9 March 1910 – 5 November 1964) was a Surinamese diplomat and lawyer. He was the first Minister Plenipotentiary of Suriname from 29 December 1954 until 1 August 1963. Subsequently, he was appointed Dutch Ambassador of Cuba.[2] Pos played a major role in the creation of the 1954 Charter for the Kingdom of the Netherlands which established the political relationship between the Netherlands and its former colonies.
9 March 1910
Raymond Pos | |
|---|---|
Raymond Pos (1954) | |
| Ambassador of the Netherlands to Cuba | |
| In office July 1963 – 5 November 1964 | |
| Minister Plenipotentiary of Suriname | |
| In office 29 December 1954 – 1 August 1963 | |
| Preceded by | position established |
| Succeeded by | Severinus Emanuels |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Raymond Henri Pos 9 March 1910 |
| Died | 5 November 1964 (aged 54) |
| Party | Independent[1] |
| Occupation | diplomat, lawyer |
Biography
Pos was born on 9 March 1910 in a Jewish family who had been living in Suriname for generations.[1] He left Suriname for the Netherlands to study at the grammar school in Alkmaar and studied law at Leiden University.[1] He was promoted in 1939 for his thesis "Evenredige vertegenwoordiging en volksvertegenwoordiging" ("Proportional representation and people's representation").[3]
Pos returned to Suriname, and worked for the Justice Department. He was promoted deputy attorney general in 1942.[1][4] In November 1947, Pos was appointed representative for Suriname in the Netherlands. A better representation was needed, and in January 1949, Henry Lucien de Vries succeeded him as commissioner.[5] In 1953, Pos was appointed Chairman of the Suriname delegation to the Second Round Table Conference in The Hague to establish a new relation between the Netherlands and its former colonies.[1] He would become one of the main authors of the Charter for the Kingdom of the Netherlands in which Suriname became a constituent country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands.[1][2]
On 29 December 1954, Pos was appointed Minister Plenipotentiary of Suriname, and served until 1 August 1963.[2] In July 1963, he was appointed Ambassador of the Netherlands to Cuba with an accreditation for Haiti.[2][6]
In 1964, the Estates of Suriname nominated Pos as Governor-General to replace Currie. The nomination was returned by the States General of the Netherlands, because it only contained one name.[7] On 29 October 1964, he was present on a Netherlands Antilles ambassador reception in Bonaire. During the reception, he became unwell, and was taken to hospital in Willemstad, Curaçao. Pos died on 5 November 1964, at the age of 54.[8]
Family
Raymond Pos was the older brother of the judge and author Hugo Pos.[9]
In 1951, he married Elizabeth Wakkie, former editor of Het Vaderland, in the Hague.[10]
Honours
- Commander of the Order of Orange-Nassau.[11]
- Knight of the Order of the Netherlands Lion.[11]
