Dutch school teacher, influential conservationist and botanist.
Jac. P. Thijsse was born in Maastricht as the son of Jacobus Thijsse (1832) and Catharina Johanna Priester (1836). His father was a sergeant of the infantry. When Thijsse was twelve the family moved to Amsterdam and his father became a notary clerk.
Being a bright student born in a relatively poor family, he became a school teacher. The Dutch “Kweekschool” teachers education was the poor man’s university of that time. His first job as a teacher was at the now by tourists flooded Isle of Texel (Den Burg). But at his time it was a lonely place. But Thijsse had read the dissertation of the Dutch botanist Franciscus Holkema (1840-1870) that described the unique botany of the Dutch North Sea Islands. As Thijsse liked to stroll in and study the free nature it was for him the place to be and observe the beauty of nature.
As his fiancée Helena was not happy with this lonely environment he went after two and a half year back to Amsterdam. But his heart remained in Texel he stated.
In Amsterdam Thijsse met his soul mate Eli Heimans (1861-1914), both were teachers and autodidact field biologists. Together they wrote from 1894 the series “Vlinders, bloemen en vogels” (Butterflies, flowers and birds). With J. Jaspers jr. they founded the periodical “De Levende Natuur” (Living nature) that appeared in 1896.
At their time the in the densely populated Netherlands not yet ploughed up areas of Mother Earth were seen as sparse areas still to be exploited. But for the environmentalists Thijsse and Heimans the unploughed earth areas were sacred places that needed protection.
When in 1904 the city of Amsterdam decided to make a refuse-dump of the 4000 years old Naardermeer lake, Heimans and Thijsse took action. Most lakes in the Netherlands are artificial peat moores, but the Naardermeer was an ancient natural lake.
In 1905 Thijsse founded the still very influential Dutch “Vereniging tot Behoud van Natuurmonumenten” (Society for preservation of nature monuments). The Society buys, protects and manages nature reserves in the Netherlands. The first purchase was the Naardermeer for fifteen thousand Dutch guilders.
On 16 October 1922 Thijsse received a honorary doctorate of the University of Amsterdam (UVA).
Personal
Thijsse married Helena Christina Petronella Bosch (10 March 1867 – 5 May 1938) on 31 July 1891. They got a son Johannes Theodoor Thijsse (11 April 1893, A’dam -1984) who became an engineer.
In 1901 Thijsse got pleurisy and had to live on with one lung.
Jac. P. Thijsse died in Overveen on January 8, 1945 at age 80.
Link to Wikipedia