Ask the average man on the street to name you their favourite former Dutch deputy prime minister, and 98 out of 100 would surely respond “Johan Witteveen”. Is it any wonder the streets of Britain shut down to mourn the man we simply knew as “Johan” on his passing, in scenes not seen since Lady Di was murdered.
It’s one of the mysteries of deadpooling that the man who Witteveen served as deputy to, PM Piet de Jong, died in 2016 without a sniff of a qualifying obituary, and yet his underling passes and bags himself the lead on the Telegraph’s obituary section. Still, congrats to the team that picked him and at least it’s not another Nobel Prize winner.
Johan Witteveen
12 June 1921 – 23 April 2019
Died aged 97 (unique hit)