Jonkheer Jan Willem Janssens GCMWO (12 October 1762 – 23 May 1838) was a Dutch nobleman, soldier and statesman who served both as the governor of the Dutch Cape Colony and governor-general of the Dutch East Indies. Early life Born in Nijmegen, his military career began at the age of nine when he became a cadet in the Dutch army. He rose through the ranks and by 1793, at the start of the Revolutionary Wars, he held the rank of colonel, and was wounded in the campaign. Batavian Republic The Dutch surrender in 1795 made way for the mostly peaceful establishment of the Batavian Republic, a satellite state under Napoleon's growing empire. From 1795 to 1802, Colonel Janssens served mostly as an administrator within the new Batavian Army. He was appointed governor of the Cape Colony upon its return to the Dutch by the British under the terms of the Treaty of Amiens in 1802. Arriving in early 1803, he attempted to strengthen the defences of the colony, but found resources lacking, having few trained troops at his disposal and the political situation tenuous at best. During this time, he was promoted to Lieutenant-General. The start of the War of the Third Coalition marked another British invasion of the Cape Colony. Janssens was under no impression that he had the ability to defeat the British force, led by Lieutenant-General Sir David Baird, yet he mobilized his forces and engaged the British on 8 January 1806, at the Battle of Blaauwberg, near Cape Town. His force was routed and the Cape Colony was surrendered to the British for the last time on 18 January. Under the terms of the surrender, Janssens was transported back to the Netherlands, arriving at the Hague on 8 June 1806. By the time Janssens surrendered to the British, the war in Europe had ended with the Treaty of Pressburg. When he returned to the Netherlands, Napoleon had already installed his brother Louis Bonaparte as the king of the newly formed Kingdom of Holland. Kingdom of Holland and the French Empire Louis Bonaparte named Janssens Secretary-General of the Department of War upon his return. He held a series of high-ranking administrative posts within the kingdom until the abdication of Louis Napoleon and the annexation of the Netherlands by France in 1810. On 11 November 1810, he was appointed governor-general of the territory known, before the annexation, as