Daniel Francis Jeroen van der Vat (born 28 October 1939, Alkmaar, North Holland) is a journalist, writer and military historian, with a focus on naval history. Van der Vat grew up in Nazi-German occupied Holland. He went to the Cardinal Vaughan Memorial School in London, and then was a student at St Cuthbert's Society, Durham University from 1957 to 1960, graduating with a BA in Classics.