Bernard van Cutsem

Bernard Henry Richard Harcourt van Cutsem (23 January 1916 – 8 December 1975) was an English horsebreeder and racehorse trainer. Ancestry and early life The van Cutsem family are Catholics, and of Dutch origin. The family was said to descend from a illegitimate son of Henry II, Duke of Brabant, who was given a knighthood and an estate, called Cuetssem Velde, near Sint-Pieters-Leeuw. By the 13th century, the family possessed considerable land, and, by 1514, a property known as t'Hof van Cuetssem. Members of the family migrated to England in the 19th century. Bernard Henry Richard Harcourt van Cutsem was born on 23 January 1916. His father was Henry Harcourt van Cutsem (1877–1917) and his mother, Eleanor Mary Josephine Southwell Trafford. Van Cutsem attended Jesus College, Cambridge and served as a second lieutenant in the Life Guards during the Second World War.