G. W. T. Dames was a former Major of Infantry of the K.N.I.L. (Maj. Inf. K.N.I.L. b.d. — buitengewoon dienst, retired) who, in 1954, published Oom Ambon van het K.N.I.L. in ‘s-Gravenhage as a grateful literary memorial to the Ambonese soldiers with whom he had served. The book — part memoir, part regimental history, part ethnographic portrait of “Oom Ambon” — draws on Dames’s own service at posts such as Bakongan in the dertiger jaren and at Brastagi in 1947, and is the principal printed source on the daily life, patrols, songs and ethos of the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army’s Marechaussee corps in Aceh in the last decades of colonial rule.
Career and the voice of the book
Dames writes in the first person throughout Oom Ambon van het K.N.I.L., identifying himself as a captain in the K.N.I.L. who served on the Westkust of Atjeh in the 1930s and saw action against Indonesian revolutionary forces around Brastagi in 1947. He had the “Maj. Inf. K.N.I.L. b.d.” after his name on the title page, indicating that he had retired from the infantry by the time of publication. His narrative is not a chronological autobiography but a series of thematic chapters — Bij ons…, Van recruut tot pensioen, Moeilijkheden op den weg, Tangsi en Tante, De buitenpost, Ooms leger, Oom en de Bintang, Dominee Thenu, Thijs, De patrouille, Jappentijd, Onder Brits bewind, Onzekerheid, Tegen de rood-witten, Tamaela — held together by the figure of “Oom Ambon,” the archetypal Ambonese soldier of the colonial army.
The author met the Soldaten-Dominee of Aceh for the first time at the end of 1932 on the beach of Bakongan, when Thenu was already “vierenzestig” years old. He served at Bakongan in the dertiger jaren alongside Thijs de Fretes and Tanamal of the 6e Divisie Marechaussee, and was present when the kolonel visited Bakongan in 1933 and the zelfbestuurder of Troemon raised the matter of a rogue elephant. In 1947 he was “in actie” at Brastagi and omgeving, where the soldier Taris shot two pelapor at eighty-five and over one hundred metres.
Method and purpose
Dames explicitly distances himself from the tall-story tradition of the colonial officer corps. The book’s prologue opens with the famous Hotel de Boer anecdote — a captain of the 1e Divisie Marechaussee uit Blang Kedjeren who, around 1933, told the Soos in Koeta-Radja a story (almost certainly embellished) of two Marechaussees with drawn klewang standing behind his beer glass at Hotel de Boer in Medan — and Dames uses the story to mark out the boundary between legend and “waarheid.” “Wij willen naar waarheid vertellen van Oom Ambon,” he writes; the book will not “de methode van bovengenoemde kapitein volgen” or “trachten te zien hoever men met fantasieën kan gaan.”
The author’s purpose, stated at the close of the prologue, is that “de lezers Oom Ambon uit deze regels leren kennen en hem de genegenheid toedragen, die schrijver dezes ertoe bewoog, zijn dankbare herinnering aan hem op papier te zetten.” The book therefore takes in everything from recruit life at the depotbataljons on Java to the Aceh War of 1873-1904, from the colonne Schmidt campaign against the Tiriō Teungkoes in 1910-1911 to the Japanese occupation of 1942-1945 and the Indonesian revolution of 1945-1949.
Sources and the Nawoord
In the Nawoord Dames acknowledges the printed sources he drew on for episodes he could not have witnessed himself, especially the chapters on the older Aceh War and the decorations history. He names in particular the works of van Kijffler and Booms, as well as Hotz (whose account of the colonne Schmidt he used for the Tiriō campaign), Schmidt himself (whose report on 1910-1911 was published), du Croo, Zentgraaf and General Swart. The book is therefore not pure memoir but a synthesis of personal recollection and these older printed authorities, with Dames’s own commentary threaded throughout.
Significance
Dames’s Oom Ambon van het K.N.I.L. is the single richest Dutch-language portrait of the Ambonese professional soldier of the colonial army. Because it was written in 1954 — late enough to look back on the whole arc of the K.N.I.L. from the Aceh War to the transfer of sovereignty, early enough to be informed by living memory — it functions both as a primary source on the last generation of Oom Ambon and as a retrospective interpretation of what that figure meant. Its affectionate but clear-eyed portrait of the Ambonese soldier, of the tangsi culture that shaped him, and of the colonial regime he served, has been drawn on by every later historian of the K.N.I.L. and of the Marechaussee in particular.
See Also
- Oom Ambon van het K.N.I.L.
- Oom Ambon
- K.N.I.L.
- Korps Marechaussee van Atjeh en Onderhorigen
- Dominee Thenu
- Thijs de Fretes
- Nussy
- Bakongan
- Brastagi
Source
Oom Ambon van het K.N.I.L., by G. W. T. Dames, Maj. Inf. K.N.I.L. b.d. (‘s-Gravenhage: Koninklijke Bibliotheek, 1954). Prologue (“Bij ons…”) and Nawoord.
G. W. T. Dames was a former Major of Infantry of the K.N.I.L. (Maj. Inf. K.N.I.L. b.d. — buitengewoon dienst, retired) who, in 1954, published Oom Ambon van het K.N.I.L. in ‘s-Gravenhage as a grateful literary memorial to the Ambonese soldiers with whom he had served. The book — part memoir, part regimental history, part ethnographic portrait of “Oom Ambon” — draws on Dames’s own service at posts such as Bakongan in the dertiger jaren and at Brastagi in 1947, and is the principal printed source on the daily life, patrols, songs and ethos of the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army’s Marechaussee corps in Aceh in the last decades of colonial rule.
Career and the voice of the book
Dames writes in the first person throughout Oom Ambon van het K.N.I.L., identifying himself as a captain in the K.N.I.L. who served on the Westkust of Atjeh in the 1930s and saw action against Indonesian revolutionary forces around Brastagi in 1947. He had the “Maj. Inf. K.N.I.L. b.d.” after his name on the title page, indicating that he had retired from the infantry by the time of publication. His narrative is not a chronological autobiography but a series of thematic chapters — Bij ons…, Van recruut tot pensioen, Moeilijkheden op den weg, Tangsi en Tante, De buitenpost, Ooms leger, Oom en de Bintang, Dominee Thenu, Thijs, De patrouille, Jappentijd, Onder Brits bewind, Onzekerheid, Tegen de rood-witten, Tamaela — held together by the figure of “Oom Ambon,” the archetypal Ambonese soldier of the colonial army.
The author met the Soldaten-Dominee of Aceh for the first time at the end of 1932 on the beach of Bakongan, when Thenu was already “vierenzestig” years old. He served at Bakongan in the dertiger jaren alongside Thijs de Fretes and Tanamal of the 6e Divisie Marechaussee, and was present when the kolonel visited Bakongan in 1933 and the zelfbestuurder of Troemon raised the matter of a rogue elephant. In 1947 he was “in actie” at Brastagi and omgeving, where the soldier Taris shot two pelapor at eighty-five and over one hundred metres.
Method and purpose
Dames explicitly distances himself from the tall-story tradition of the colonial officer corps. The book’s prologue opens with the famous Hotel de Boer anecdote — a captain of the 1e Divisie Marechaussee uit Blang Kedjeren who, around 1933, told the Soos in Koeta-Radja a story (almost certainly embellished) of two Marechaussees with drawn klewang standing behind his beer glass at Hotel de Boer in Medan — and Dames uses the story to mark out the boundary between legend and “waarheid.” “Wij willen naar waarheid vertellen van Oom Ambon,” he writes; the book will not “de methode van bovengenoemde kapitein volgen” or “trachten te zien hoever men met fantasieën kan gaan.”
The author’s purpose, stated at the close of the prologue, is that “de lezers Oom Ambon uit deze regels leren kennen en hem de genegenheid toedragen, die schrijver dezes ertoe bewoog, zijn dankbare herinnering aan hem op papier te zetten.” The book therefore takes in everything from recruit life at the depotbataljons on Java to the Aceh War of 1873-1904, from the colonne Schmidt campaign against the Tiriō Teungkoes in 1910-1911 to the Japanese occupation of 1942-1945 and the Indonesian revolution of 1945-1949.
Sources and the Nawoord
In the Nawoord Dames acknowledges the printed sources he drew on for episodes he could not have witnessed himself, especially the chapters on the older Aceh War and the decorations history. He names in particular the works of van Kijffler and Booms, as well as Hotz (whose account of the colonne Schmidt he used for the Tiriō campaign), Schmidt himself (whose report on 1910-1911 was published), du Croo, Zentgraaf and General Swart. The book is therefore not pure memoir but a synthesis of personal recollection and these older printed authorities, with Dames’s own commentary threaded throughout.
Significance
Dames’s Oom Ambon van het K.N.I.L. is the single richest Dutch-language portrait of the Ambonese professional soldier of the colonial army. Because it was written in 1954 — late enough to look back on the whole arc of the K.N.I.L. from the Aceh War to the transfer of sovereignty, early enough to be informed by living memory — it functions both as a primary source on the last generation of Oom Ambon and as a retrospective interpretation of what that figure meant. Its affectionate but clear-eyed portrait of the Ambonese soldier, of the tangsi culture that shaped him, and of the colonial regime he served, has been drawn on by every later historian of the K.N.I.L. and of the Marechaussee in particular.
See Also
- Oom Ambon van het K.N.I.L.
- Oom Ambon
- K.N.I.L.
- Korps Marechaussee van Atjeh en Onderhorigen
- Dominee Thenu
- Thijs de Fretes
- Nussy
- Bakongan
- Brastagi
Source
Oom Ambon van het K.N.I.L., by G. W. T. Dames, Maj. Inf. K.N.I.L. b.d. (‘s-Gravenhage: Koninklijke Bibliotheek, 1954). Prologue (“Bij ons…”) and Nawoord.