General H. Demmeni, military and civil Governor of Atjeh and Dependencies, died on 13 December 1886 at Padang Pandjang? Pajakombo in the Bovenlanden van Padang|Padang Highlands of Sumatra’s West Coast, where he had gone on sick leave barely a month earlier. His death, which came just as Brooshooft was finishing his popular history of the Atjeh War, robbed the Dutch of the officer whom Brooshooft called the indispensable man of the concentration period, just as Pel had been the indispensable man of 1876.
Context
After the failure of the forward policy of the civil-governor period (Pruys van der Hoeven, Laging Tobias) and the adoption of the concentrated-stance policy in August 1884, Demmeni had been appointed military commander and then Governor of Atjeh. Brooshooft credits him with designing the existing fortified line around Kota Radja and Oleh-leh, the telephone network, the steam tram, the ring-dijk polder system, and the strict internal security regime of the final years. By late 1886 he was fifty-five years old and worn out by incessant work and the climate.
Illness, Leave, and Death
Brooshooft writes that Demmeni, like Pel before him, appeared physically strong — able to work almost without rest on little sleep and very moderate food. In reality, like Pel, he sustained that capacity with large doses of quinine (chinine) to suppress the fevers from which he constantly suffered, and in the long run this unnatural regime undermined his constitution. At the end of October 1886 he applied for sick leave to recuperate in the healthier mountain climate of the Bovenlanden van Padang, and he departed for Padang in November. The leave did him no good. Hardly had he reached the mountain resort when he died at the age of 55 at Pajakombo, the chief town of a division of that residency.
The sad news reached the Netherlands by telegraph on 13 December 1886. On 14 December the Minister of the Colonies announced it in the Tweede Kamer der Staten-Generaal, and the Speaker of the House expressed the deep regret of the members on behalf of the chamber.
Career Recalled by Brooshooft
Brooshooft’s chapter on Demmeni’s death, written while the news was still fresh, gives the following biographical summary:
- Demmeni was of Alsatian (Elzasser) origin, according to Brooshooft, and probably entered Dutch Indies service through family connections.
- He rose through the various ranks to reach lieutenant-colonel.
- In 1879 he appeared at Atjeh as commander of the south-eastern line, and subsequently took part as a column commander in General van der Heyden’s campaign in the XXII Moekims, distinguishing himself personally at the storming of benting Lamgani.
- His further distinguished service at Atjeh earned him appointment as Military Commander of Amboina and Ternate.
- Governor-General ‘s Jacob came to value him highly in that capacity and placed him at Atjeh as Military Commander on the departure of Colonel Schäfer, warmly recommending him to his successor van Rees for the governorship if it were again conferred upon a military officer.
- In September 1884 he assumed the governorship and, according to Brooshooft, fulfilled the trust placed in him with energy.
Demmeni had been decorated with the Military William Order (Militaire Willemsorde) and with the Knight’s Cross of the Order of the Netherlands Lion. Brooshooft concludes that the “excellent arrangement of our present position at Atjeh remains for him a more lasting monument” than any formal honour, and closes his book with the hope that Demmeni’s successor would be “an energetic military governor” lest his work be broken off as Van der Heyden’s had been.
See Also
- Demmeni
- Concentratie-stelsel (1884-1896)
- Governor of Atjeh
- Kota Radja
- Oleh-leh
- Van der Heyden
- Pel
- Atjeh War
- Payakumbuh
- Padang
- Tweede Kamer
- 13 December
- 1886
Source
Brooshooft, Mr. P. Geschiedenis van den Atjeh-oorlog 1873–1886. Utrecht: F. B. van Ditmar, 1886, closing section of Hoofdstuk X, pp. 279–280 (pp. 297–298 of the OCR).