Willem De Cock Buning

Willem De Cock Buning was born in Surakarta (Solo) in Java in 1880 then part of the Dutch East Indies. He left there for the Netherlands when he was 4. After schooling he went to work in 1903 for Dunlop and Kolff who exported goods to India, where he went as Commercial Representative for 2 years, and then for 4 years to Batavia and after that to Semarang . In the 1920s he joined Rotary and became a member of the S’Gravenhage RC in The Hague. He rose to become District Governor in 1928, and a few years later to RI Vice President and Director. In the intervening years he was given a post as an Associate Commissioner for Extension appointed by Rotary International to travel on behalf of Rotary. In that capacity, Buning spent part of 1929 journeying through Europe.

Paul Harris met Buning in 1928 when he stayed at his house. He wrote about this: "I spent my first night in Holland as the guest of the District Governor, a…