Achmad Soebardjo was born in Teluk Jambe, Karawang, on 23 March 1896 to a father of Acehnese noble descent from Pidie, Teuku Muhammad Yusuf, and died in Jakarta on 15 December 1978. A graduate of HBS Jakarta (1917), he earned a Meester in de Rechten at Leiden University (1933) and was active in Indonesian student circles in the Netherlands. He sat in the BPUPKI and PPKI, was Indonesia's first Foreign Minister (1945) and again in 1951–1952, and ambassador to Switzerland (1957–1961); he was named a National Hero in 2009.