Van de Roemer was a Dutch first lieutenant of infantry in Atjeh in 1876, one of the two subordinate officers of the post at Lampagar. He was killed — a klewang cut across the head — on his way from his room to his alarm post during the night attack of 2-3 May 1876.
The day’s warnings
On 1 May Van de Roemer returned from escorting a transport to Olehleh and reported to the post commander Captain Hoynck van Papendrecht that an Atjeher at Olehleh had told him that a band of about sixty enemies was near the pass of Blang Kala intending to build a fortification; on the morning of 2 May he led 30 men in reconnaissance towards the pass and found nothing. That evening he talked, with the lieutenant Schnelle, to the visiting kampong heads Hadji Soliman and Toekoe Amat — the officer who usually handled the two heads best, for the Captain was somewhat deaf — and received from one of the licensed deer-hunters a piece of venison as a gift. Both lieutenants, unlike their commander, distrusted the visit and the heads’ request that the northern sentries should not be quick to fire on population patrols that night.
His death
Van de Roemer held the camp watch until one o’clock, when the post commander relieved him. At about four the enemy came over the fence. He was seen no more; at dawn, just outside the gallery of the officers’ quarters, his body lay with a klewang cut over his head — died “on the way to his post, the hero’s death”, in the words of H. F. Meijer, who prints his name in Atjeh van 26 December 1875 tot 4 September 1876 (1883).
See Also
- Night attack on Lampagar (2-3 May 1876)
- Hoynck van Papendrecht
- Schnelle
- Lampagar
- Guerilla warfare in Groot-Atjeh
Source
Atjeh van 26 December 1875 tot 4 September 1876, door H. F. Meijer (Breda: P. B. Nieuwenhuijs, 1883), chapter VII, pp. 167–173.