Van Eendenburg was born in Batavia in the Dutch East Indies and studied at the University of Leiden before the outbreak of World War II.

Eight weeks after Germany occupied the Netherlands in 1940 he and Karel Michielsen (a rower at KSRV Njord, a swimming association at the University) decided to escape to the United Kingdom.

Van Eendenburg had a 12-foot motorless gig, named De Bebèk (the duck), which they brought from the Kaag to the beach near his home in Oegstgeest using a horse and cart.

Friends living on the boulevard stored water and life-jackets ready for the voyage and just before the crossing they were joined by a third man Fred Vas Nunes.

The three men were received at Roehampton Park by Queen Wilhelmina, who awarded them all the Bronze Cross without consulting the Dutch government-in-exile.