The Eerekruis voor belangrijke krijgsverrichtingen (Honour Cross for Important Military Operations), popularly known as the Expeditiekruis (Expedition Cross), was a Dutch campaign decoration instituted for award to military and civilian personnel who had taken part in important military operations — chiefly the colonial expeditions of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, including the Atjeh-oorlog. The cross was worn with clasps (gespen) inscribed with the name of the expedition; the clasp “Atjeh 1873–1876” was awarded for service in the early phase of the Atjeh war. Together with the Atjeh-medaille, the Expeditiekruis with clasp was the standard campaign medal of the early Atjeh expeditions. Generaal Snijders was granted the right to wear the Expeditiekruis with clasp “Atjeh 1873–1876” by grant of 17 March 17 March 1877, in respect of his Atjeh service of 1874–1875.
Form and Wear
The Eerekruis was a cross worn on the chest with one or more clasps inscribed with the name and date of the expedition. The clasp “Atjeh 1873–1876” was the principal Atjeh clasp, covering the period of the Eerste Atjeh-expeditie of April 1873, the Tweede Atjeh-expeditie of December 1873–January 1874, and the prolonged mopping-up operations of 1874–1876. The cross was awarded together with the Atjeh-medaille for the same service, but was a distinct decoration.
Snijders’ Award
Snijders was granted the right to wear the Eerekruis with clasp “Atjeh 1873–1876” by grant of 17 March 17 March 1877, “ter zake van de krijgsverrichtingen tegen het rijk van Atjeh” — together with the Atjeh-medaille. He had earlier been appointed Ridder 4e klasse der Militaire Willemsorde by KB of 12 November 1875 No. 18 for the same service; the three decorations together constituted the full campaign award for his Atjeh service.
Holders
The biographer Van den Berg records that Snijders and Kapitein-Luitenant ter Zee J. Boom (who died in 1942 at the age of 95) were “vermoedelijk wel tot de allerlaatste dragers” of both the Expeditiekruis with clasp and the Atjeh-medaille.
See Also
- Atjeh-medaille
- Atjeh 1873–1876 gesp
- Militaire Willemsorde
- Cornelis Jacobus Snijders
- Koninklijk Besluit of 12 November 1875 No. 18
- First Aceh Expedition (1873)
- Second Aceh Expedition (1873-1874)
- Aceh War
- 1873
- 1874
- 1875
- 1876
- 1877
- 1942
Source
D. van den Berg, Cornelis Jacobus Snijders (1852–1939): Een leven in dienst van zijn Land en zijn Volk (Voorburg: September 1944), p. 36. Koninklijke Bibliotheek shelfmark 0301 4872.