Sgt Helene Margrethe Maertens de Coster (née Østergaard Jensen)
(1897 - 1997)
Profile
Sgt Helene Maertens de Coster enlisted in the Women’s Army Corps (WAC) in 1944 and served in the US Army for more than 20 years. She was one of twenty-nine Danish born WACs during the Second World War.
Helene Margrethe Maertens de Coster (née Østergaaard Jensen) was born on 23 July 1897 in Copenhagen, to Claus Østergaard Jensen and Sophie Jensine Jensen (née Petersen).[1] The family lived in different areas of Copenhagen in her childhood years.[2] She attended the local school in Valby, but moved to the school at Enghave Plads on 20 April 1907 (4th grade).[3]
She came to the United States in 1914, arriving in New York onboard the SS Hellig Olav on 23 April 1914. Her destination was an uncle Edward ‘Edy’ Petersen in Melton, Mass.[4] Her mother’s brother had emigrated to the USA in 1890 and had been a citizen since 1900.[5] Her father dies the year after of a brain tumor on 26 September 1915.[6]
To years later, on 12 September 1917, she married Frederick Maertens de Coster on 12 September 1917.[7] He dies in 1937. Shortly after, Maertens applied to become be naturalised as citizen. The proces was concluded on 23 November 1942.[8]
Maertens de Coster enlisted as a Private (A-209898) in the Women’s Army Corps in New York City on 21 November 1944.[9] She was in service for more than twenty years and served in World War Two as well as in Korea.[10] She was discharged on 31 January 1965.[11] Her last assignment was as a SP5 medical specialist assigned to Patterson Army Hospital.
Maertens de Coster died on 4 August 1997 in New Jersey, New York.[12]
Endnotes
[1] DNA: Parish register, Sundby sogn.
[2] Copenhagen Municipal Archive: Politiets registerblade. Station 11. Filmrulle 0009. Registerblad 3520 (unikt id. 3340455). Retrieved from https://kbharkiv.dk/permalink/post/17-1555478; and Politiets registerblade. Station 4. Filmrulle 0011. Registerblad 414 (unikt id. 20707). Retrieved from Retrieved from https://kbharkiv.dk/permalink/post/17-1396344 (29 July 2022).
[3] Copenhagen Municipal Archive: Enghave Plads skole / Elevprotokol 1892-1916 / Opslag 331 Skoleprotokol.
[4] Ancestry: New York Passenger Lists, 1820-1957.
[5] Ancestry: New York Passenger Lists, 1820-1957.
[6] Copenhagen Municipal Archive: Begravelsesprotokoller 1915-1915 (lb.nr.: 1-4274) s. 722. Retrieved from https://kbharkiv.dk/permalink/post/1-403513 (28 July 2022).
[7] Ancestry: U.S., Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Church Records, 1781-1969.
[8] Ancestry: Massachusetts, U.S., State and Federal Naturalization Records, 1798-1950.
[9] Ancestry: U.S., World War II Army Enlistment Records, 1938-1946.Ancestry: U.S., World War II Army Enlistment Records, 1938-1946.
[10] Ancestry: U.S., Veterans' Gravesites, ca.1775-2019.
[11] Ancestry: U.S., Veterans' Gravesites, ca.1775-2019.
[12] Obituary for Helene Maertens de Coster, Asbury Park Press, 7 Aug 1997, p. 6.