by Scott Taylor
On Thursday 28 May, Esprit de Corps was honoured to attend what the Netherlands Embassy dubbed a 'Hail & Farewell' reception. The 'Hail' was a welcome to Maaike Kriellaars as the new assistant to the Defence Attache. The 'Farewell' element was the departure from that same role by none other than Captain (ret'd) Wendy Sewell formerly a CC-130 pilot in the RCAF. Sewell is retiring from her job at the embassy after more than 21 years of sterling service to the extended Ottawa Service Attaches Association. During that tenure, Sewell endeared herself to the entire diplomatic corps and she provided stalwart service to six successive Netherlands defence attaches. The 'Hail & Farewell' was held at the Beechwood Cemetery reception hall in Ottawa. In attendance were about 100 of Sewell's close friends, family and embassy co-workers. Given her immense popularity, Sewell's retirement ceremony was a somewhat emotional affair.
The first speaker was Major (ret'd) Lynn Doucette who had served with Sewell in the RCAF. The trip down memory lane continued with a duo presentation by Sewell's daughters, Marious and Christen. Their combined commentary provided many of us with our first insight into the motherhood side to Sewell. The close working relationship between Sewell and her employer, Netherlands Defence attache Lt. Col Mark de Wit was evident through the emotion packed tribute which he paid to her. The crown jewel in the reception was when Her Excellency Ambassador Margriet Vonno bestowed upon Sewell a Royal decree at the level of 'Knight of the Order of Orange-Nassau' for her outstanding service to the Netherlands. For those not familiar with this award it is essentially equivalent to a Knighthood. In 2025, Sewell had been selected by our judges and was named a Top Woman in Defence as part of our Breaking Down the Barricades initiative and we were pleased to supply supporting documentation to highlight her nomination for this Royal recognition. Somehow the nomination and the award itself had all been kept secret from Sewell right up until the presentation. This would have been no easy feat given Sewell's omnipotence in all dealings with the Netherlands Embassy. The final speeches were delivered respectively by Anna Rijk, an associate at the Netherlands Embassy, and Sewell's long time defence attache assistant at the Chilean Embassy, Ms. Eann Hodges.
Bravo Zulu to Wendy Sewell for all that she has achieved from all of us at Esprit de Corps Magazine. As for Maaike Kriellaars you will indeed have some rather large shoes to fill in the days to come and we look forward to working with you moving forward.
