J. B. Zon was a Dutch lieutenant of the Nederlandsch-Indisch Leger who was killed in action at Senelop on 19 April 1896 during the spring 1896 crisis that followed Toekoe Oemar’s defection. He is named in the Atjeh-Album of 1896 as one of the seven officers killed in the spring 1896 operations, and his portrait is one of the six reproduced in the album’s closing plates.
The second siege of Senelop
The Atjeh-Album records that the temporary post at Senelop — like the post at Anagaloeng — was repeatedly attacked during the spring 1896 crisis. The album’s narrative of the relief of the besieged temporary posts records that the fierce struggle around Senelop — het verwoede gevecht dat om Senelop geleverd was — produced heavy casualties: Major Okhuysen, Lieutenant Zon and fifty subordinates were wounded, and thirteen killed. The roll of the fallen gives Zon’s date of death as 19 April 1896 — ten days after the relief of Biloel and Lamkoenjit in which Captain Geluk had been killed.
The chronology of the spring 1896 fallen
The Atjeh-Album’s roll of the fallen gives Zon’s place in the chronology of the spring casualties as the fifth fatality:
- Lieutenant K. H. Westendorp — died of wounds 11 March 1896
- Lieutenant J. W. Vuijk — killed at Senelop 30 March 1896
- Captain E. P. A. Geluk — killed at Biloel-Lamkoenjit 9 April 1896
- Lieutenant H. L. Maarschalk — killed at Tjot Rang 14 April 1896
- Lieutenant J. B. Zon — killed at Senelop 19 April 1896
- Lieutenant C. G. A. C. Krohne — died of wounds 4 May 1896
- Captain H. O. W. L. Kramer — killed at Lampisang 23 May 1896
Burial at Kota Potjoet
The album records that Zon was buried at the cemetery of Kota Potjoet, whose entrance bears the inscription Aan onze Kameraden, gevallen op het Veld van Eer.
Significance
Zon’s significance in the documentary record of the Atjeh-oorlog is as the second officer fatality at the post of Senelop — the post that, with Anagaloeng, had been the principal target of the Atjehnese siege in the early days of the 1896 crisis. His death — together with that of Vuijk at the same post three weeks earlier — establishes Senelop as one of the costliest single posts of the spring crisis, and one of the principal focal points of the Dutch defensive effort.
See Also
- Senelop
- Okhuysen
- Anagaloeng
- K. H. Westendorp
- J. W. Vuijk
- E. P. A. Geluk
- H. L. Maarschalk
- H. O. W. L. Kramer
- C. G. A. C. Krohne
- Relief of Biloel and Lamkoenjit (April 1896)
- Toekoe Oemar’s defection (1896)
- Kota Potjoet
- Aceh War
- 19 April
- 1896
- Atjeh-Album (Eigen Haard, 1896)
Source
Atjeh-Album van Eigen Haard, uitgave van de N.V. Het Tijdschrift “Eigen Haard”, Amsterdam, 1896, pp. 10, 28, 30 (Een Terugblik — Wat Reeds Verkregen Werd; Gevallenen, hun Roeping Vervuld!).