Background
He was a son of poet, critic, essayist and philosopher Pieter Nicolaas van Eyck and wife Nelly Estelle Benjamins, a woman of Jewish and Latin origin born and raised in Suriname.
He was a son of poet, critic, essayist and philosopher Pieter Nicolaas van Eyck and wife Nelly Estelle Benjamins, a woman of Jewish and Latin origin born and raised in Suriname.
His family moved to Great Britain in 1919 and he was educated in England (at Sidcot School in Somerset) during his youth.