A FORMER Scotland rugby star whose family fled Holland to escape the Nazis left £1 million after his death.
Frans ten Bos, one of Scotland’s best-known rugby internationals of the late 1950s and early 60s, died aged 79 last year.
Born in England to Dutch parents, his family had briefly returned to the Netherlands before being involved in a dramatic escape to the UK after the Nazi invasion of Holland.
The family made their way to Scotland and ten Bos went on to attend Fettes College and Oxford University. He played club rugby for London Scottish and won 17 caps at lock forwardbetween 1959 and 1963 and was a key member of a Scotland team which slowly began to turn the nation’s international rugby fortunes.
His published will has revealed he left an estate worth £1,185,569 that will go to his wife Maria-Teresa. He ordered she should receive all his property interests and personal belongings including cars.
Ten Bos had told of how his family fled the Netherlands via France for Britain at the outbreak of hostilities.
He said: “My father had been dreading this moment and also planning for it, but the first shell to target the airport landed on his plane. So then he got his DKW - he always had enviable cars - and filled it with extra jerrycans, the basic essentials, three children and a wife and drove down the Belgian coast. The roads were crammed with refugees and we stopped at every port but couldn’t get out. We waited two weeks at Bordeaux, the last port in France, and finally there were three cocoa boats from west Africa heading to Britain. My mother knew they were only taking British subjects and she also knew children had precedence.
“When we were handed over in Bordeaux the ship’s captain was horrified and allowed our parents to go too.” It later emerged that the other two boats didn’t make it, both being torpedoed.
Ten Bos had a successful printing business in London and, after selling up, retired to Glen Prosen in Angus, where he enjoyed shooting, fishing and playing golf.
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