Henri Deterding

Henri Wilhelm August Deterding KBE (Hon), (19 April 1866, Amsterdam - 4 February 1939, St. Moritz) was one of the first executives of the Royal Dutch Petroleum Company and for 36 years (1900–1936) its chairman and the chairman of the combined Royal Dutch/Shell oil company. He came to power after the early death of the Royal Dutch's original leader, Jean Baptiste August Kessler. He made it to the runner up against John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil and it is still one of the world's largest petroleum companies. He was made an honorary KBE in 1920, ostensibly for service to Anglo-Dutch relations, but mainly for his work supplying Allies with petroleum during World War I.

Called the "Napoleon of Oil", Deterding was responsible for developing the tanker fleet that let Royal Dutch compete with the Shell company of Marcus Samuel. He led Royal Dutch to several major mergers and acquisitions, including a merger with Samuel's "Shell" Transport and Trading Company in 1907 and the purchase of Azerbaijan oil fields from the Rothschild family in 1911. In the last years of his life, Deterding became controversial when he became an admirer of the German Nazi party. In 1936, he discussed with them the sale of a year's oil reserves on credit; the next year, he was forced to resign from the company's board.

The British newspaper The Daily Mail erroneously published his obituary on the 27th June 1924, with the news being copied by the New York Times.

That same day however, the Dutch envoy in Londen René de Marees van Swinderen noted in a letter to the Dutch foreign minister Herman Adriaan van Karnebeek:

"P.S. Ik kon de verleiding niet weerstaan om hierbij in te sluiten de necrologie door de Daily Mail heden gewijd aan den gelukkig springlevenden Deterding."

(Translation: "P.S. I could not resist adding hereby the obituary dedicated by the Daily Mail to Deterding, who is fortunately very much alive.")

Deterding did not die until 1939.