Erik Muller

An article about the membership badge of the "Vereeniging van Beambten der Departementen van Algemeen Bestuur en Hooge Colleges van Staat" (Association of Officers of the Departments of General Administration and High Councils of State). The Association was formed in 1900. Little is known of its history and the Badge itself.

The Prussian Merit Cross for Women and Young Ladies was instituted in 1871 as an award for the relentless self-sacrifice of women and young ladies for the good of combatants and their families during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870/1871.  It was awarded on recommendation of the Prussian Queen. A total of 15 Dutch women received this prestigious award.

Peleton 48 is a group of reenactors that perform at various events as an exercise platoon. The platoon was founded in 1996. At the Christmas celebrations of 2005 the members were awarded with a Commemorative Medal for their 10 year anniversary. Since 2005 the medal is awarded for meritorious services towards the Platoon.

The author describes the life of Jelis de Jong, grandfather of his wife. After receiving multiple photographs of Jelis in uniform, the author discovered that he never received any award for his WW2 service. A successful request was made with the Ministry of Defense and on October 14th, 2014, Jelis was posthumously awarded the Mobilisation War Cross.

The author describes his research into the papers and medals of lieutenant-general Willem Marie Camp (1815-1907). This old soldier started his career as a volunteer in 1831 and saw action during the Dutch-Belgian War of 1830/1831. He then was promoted through the ranks and ended his career as major-general and commander of the 1st Military Department (Amsterdam). During his career he received three decorations: the Metal Cross 1830/1831, the Officer’s Long Service decoration and a Knight’s cross in the Order of the Netherlands Lion. After his retirement he was made a brevet lieutenant-general in 1905.

The Municipality of Westwoud instituted a silver medal to be awarded to persons of merit to the municipality on the occasion of its merger into the Municipality of Bangert on 1-1-1979. 25 medals were ordered and 23 medals were awarded. It is remarkable that the 1978 medal is identical to the unofficial Mayor's medal that mayor Lemmens privately ordered in 1975.

The Union ,”Insulinde”, Society of retired or honorably discharged military personnel beneath the rank of officer of the armed forces of the land, sea and colonies, was founded in 1894. Its goals were dedication to the House of Orange, respect for the government and other authorities, representation of the material interests of its members, to the exclusion of all political interests and providing financial benefits to widows and orphans of members of the League.
The author gives a short description of the history of this Union and its membership forms. Its members were required to wear a badge, consisting of a six-pointed star with the effigy of Queen Wilhelmina from a ribbon of orange-red-white-blue. This badge is often found on collector markets and has found a home in many collections. However, it is rather unknown to most people what it represents.
Besides the different types of badges, the author also describes the medal worn by board members, a badge worn by Members of Order and the Certificate of Membership.

The Medal of the Royal Netherlands Indies Aviation Society
While visiting the Netherlands Institute of Military History in The Hague the author was made aware of a showcase were two gold medals were displayed. They were both awarded to General C.J. Snijders. One of the medals was the Medal of the R.N.I.A.S. Information about the Royal Netherlands-East-Indian Aviation Society is extremely rare.
The society was founded in 1909, disbanded in 1915 and again founded in 1924. The first mention of the medal was in 1931, when it was decided to strike a medal from the profits of the 1931 post flight from Batavia to Australia. The medal was first awarded to the three airmen who first flew that post route: M.P. Pattist, J.J. Moll and S. Elleman. The third and fourth recipients were General C.J. Snijders and director-general N. van Zalinge of the Royal Mail Line (1934). The sixth and last award found was that to ex-R.N.I.A.S. president M.H.C. Vreede in 1938.
Unfortunately no more sources were found after 1939. It seems plausible that the society was disbanded after the Japanese occupation in 1942 and was never again founded after the end of the war.

The author describes a British miniature medal group, which he bought during the International Meeting of Phaleristic Societies in Switzerland in 2009. His research shows that the recipient is Rear Admiral F.R.J. Mack, who ended his career as a Gentleman Usher for Queen Elizabeth II. The group was positively identified because of the Norwegian King Haakon VII Freedom Cross. From several websites the author then describes the career of Mack, from his start as a Naval Cadet in 1915 until his retirement in 1954 and finally his death in 1959.

English summary
In 1904 it was 25 years since Queen-Mother Emma came from Waldeck-Pyrmont to the Netherlands. Because of this occasion the “Dutch-Belgian Society of Friends of the Medal as a Piece of Art” proposed to Her Majesty to create a medal with her portrait on it. Shortly after that Her Majesty decided to use this medal for a price to reward acts of courage and humanity in saving lives of the shipwrecked. She wrote to the two Life Saving Societies to give advice on this award and to propose names of those eligible for the award.
The first ten awards were for the rescue of the British steam ship “Castanos” on February 2, 1905. Eight of the original recipients received a clasp to the medal on the second occasion of award: the rescue of the German steam ship “Berlin”, which stranded near Hoek van Holland on February 20, 1907. A total of 32 awards were made for this rescue.
After that the medal was sparingly awarded. Until the last award in 1919 a total of 41 medals and 8 clasps were awarded.
It is not known why Queen-Mother Emma ceased the award. It is assumed that this was because of the great number of awards bestowed on lifesavers in that period. The award became obsolete after her death in 1934.

The awards of the municipality of Hensbroek
The municipality of Hensbroek is a former municipality in the northern part of the Province of North-
Holland. The municipality was split in two and absolved by the municipalities of Obdam and
Heerhugowaard on January 1st, 1979. Earlier, on July 26th, 1962, the Council of the Municipality
instituted the award of Freeman and a Medal of Honour in silver. In the 16 years that followed the Medal
of Honour in silver was bestowed on 3 persons, one of them also becoming the only Freeman of
Hensbroek.

English summary
The author describes the four Brazilian naval orders and medals: the Ordem do Mérito Naval (Order of
Naval Merit), the Medalha Naval de Serviços Distintos (Navy Distinguished Service Medal), the Medalha
Mérito Tamandaré (Tamandaré Medal of Merit) and the Brazilian Navy Award (Prêmio Marinha do
Brasil). Of the first three decorations the author gives the list of Dutch recipients, which he has found in
the Dario Oficial da União, the Brazilian State Gazette and other sources.

The Cross of the Association of Military Surgeons of the United States
While looking for permissions to accept foreign awards in the Royal Decrees of the years 1944-1955 the author found the mention of a Cross of the Association of Military Surgeons of the United States (AMSUS) to Colonel H.J. van der Giessen, M.D., of the Dutch Army Medical Service. This Cross appeared to be the membership badge of the AMSUS, which was instituted in 1891. It is strange to find out that Her Majesty the Queen gave permission to wear a foreign membership badge on the Dutch military uniform, since there is no record of a Dutch military organization membership badge ever having been accepted for wear!

The Medal of Honour of the Municipality of Hoogkarspel
By decree of 19 April, 1955, the Council of the Municipality of Hoogkarspel instituted a Medal of Honour in bronze and silver to be awarded to citizens of the Municipality who distinguished themselves by especially meritorious conduct within the Municipality. The Medal of Honour was only awarded six times till 1979, when Hoogkarspel was merged into the newly formed Municipality of Drechterland.

The Merchant Navy Order - an addendum
After his article on this Order in Decorare 19 the author received pieces of additional information. The first was that the Order was also awarded in silver in 1931 to 1st Engineer J. Braam of the S.S. ,,Zonnewijk” for exceptional devotion to duty and conduct during the repair of engine-damage on the 23rd of August, 1929. This proves that the Order was also awarded after 1929. However, the question
remains, till when the Order was awarded.
The second important new piece of information was an image of a Silver Plaque of the Society, which was mentioned in the earlier article. It was awarded in March 1931 to W. Steffens Sr. and with the article was an image of this Plaque.

The Merchant Navy Order of the Society ,,Netherlands Maritime Affairs”
In 1924 the Society ,,Netherlands Maritime Affairs” instituted a Merchant Navy Order in three classes:
a gold medal, a silver medal and a bronze medal. The Order was awarded to officers and men of the
Netherlands Merchant Navy for acts of self-sacrifice and good conduct. The author did research in
online newspapers and found eight awards of the gold medal, six of the silver medal and twelve of the
bronze medal between 1924 and 1929. After 1929 the Order apparently got in to disuse, since no
awards were published.

Estonian decorations to Dutchmen
The author accidentally stumbled upon a book about the Estonian Orders, which was published by the Estonian State Chancellery in 2000. The book lists a complete roll of recipients for all known Estionian state decorations from 1919 till 1999. The author discovered 14 Dutchmen amongst these recipients, which were awarded a total of 19 Estonian decorations. One of the recipients, Mr. Carol Stahl was awarded a total of five decorations. Mr. Anton Schuurman was decorated twice. Both men were Consuls-General for the State of Estonia.

Two Dutch officers and the Abyssinian War of 1867/1868
The author discovered two Dutch officers that were awarded the British Abyssinian War Medal 1867/1868. They were Lieutenant J.F.C. Prince (? - 1896) and Lieutenant T.W.J. Buys (1894-1904). The latter rose to the rank of Major-General and became Knight 4th class of the Military Order of William and was awarded the Sword of Honour. The author gives more details of his career and completes his article with the question if anybody knows why Dutch officers were involved in this war.

Jannis Jongman, knight 4th class of the Military Order of William
The author gives us details of the life of Jannis Jongman (1873 - ?) who became a Knight of the M.W.O. in 1908. He was one of the Knights who had successfully requested his own decoration. His request is given including the strikethroughs in the original document. After retirement from the Netherlands-Indian Army Jongman worked as a clerk at the Ministry of Colonies. He was twice called back to arms: first in 1914-1916 (First World War) and later as a Militia Commander with the Armed Police Forces in Sukabumi, Western Java (1921-1925). After returning from Sukabumi Jongman joined the Society of Knights M.W.O. beneath the rank of Officer and became its President in 1933. For his service as President of this Society he was appointed a Knight in the Order of Orange-Nassau in 1935 and made an honorary Sub-Lieutenant in the R.N.I.A. in April 1940.

Geuko Schuur, Knight 4th class of the Military Order of William
The author gives us some details about the live of Geuko Schuur (1874-1921). This orphan enlisted in the Royal Netherlands Indies Army in 1892 and was awarded both the Honourable Mention (1896) and the Knight’s cross 4th class of the Military Order of William (1902). He received this last award for saving the life of his Company Commander on March 28th, 1901. After hearing of the award to Schuur, this Company Commander, Captain R.A. Cornelis, writes him a letter of gratitude and sends with that a miniature of the decoration.
After leaving the R.N.I.A. Schuur returns to the Province of Groningen and all becomes quiet around his person. From December 27th, 1906, till October 26th, 1907 he serves with the Amsterdam Police. The author ends the article with a list of the only five other Amsterdam police officers, awarded with the Military William’s Order.

The Honour Guard Commemorative Medal 1933
The author publishes the names of the 36 former cadets of the Army and the Navy, who 35 years after they were members of the honour guard during the inauguration of Queen Wilhelmina in 1898, once again acted as such during the 35th anniversary of reign of Her Majesty the Queen on September 9th, 1933. For this they received the Honour Guard Commemorative Medal 1933.

Dutch recipients of South African medals for the Anglo-Boer War 1899-1902
During his research into the biographies of recipients of the Medal of the Red Cross (Government Medal) the author found numerous mentions to Dutch Red Cross personnel serving in the Anglo-Boer War. In the biography of one nurse he found the mention of a ‘War Medal for the Boer War’. After digging in some old newspapers he found a number of articles concerning the award of the Anglo-Boere Oorlog Medalje to Dutchmen on 10 October 1938. The author concludes with the names of the 83 recipients. He also lists a 84th recipient, which has been awarded both the Dekoratie voor Trouwe Dienst and the Anglo-Boer War Medal, M.S. Lingbeek, MD, who was responsible for the Boer Medical Services. His awards turned up at Alec Kaplan’s auction of March 2nd, 2005. They were accompanied by a large group of documents.

New information on the Cross of Merit of the Netherlands Union of Former Combattants (and Recipients of the Mobilication Commemorative Cross)
This article gives new information on this award, instituted in 1947. An article on this subject was written before by Mr. Henny Meijer and published in Decorare 6. The author was contacted by a fellow collector with the news that this man had a cross and brevet belonging to the designer of the cross. This brevet also gives us the new information that it was awarded after 1950. We can now conclude that it was awarded till at least 1978 and maybe even until 1983.
Also the author point out a change in the suspension and in the ribbon of the award. There’s also a change in the reverse of the cross. The text was originally engraved and is now embossed at the reverse.

The author discusses an insignificant sports medal which he got a couple of years ago. By coincidence he got hold of a photo book with pictures of the march for which the medal was awarded. And going through the archive of the Zaandam Police Museum he found a booklet with the explanation of the design of the medal. He tries to give an example of how an insignificant medal can turn out to be an interesting subject of research and that it’s quite rewarding to find out the complete story. In this case the 20th anniversary march of the Amsterdam Police Sports and Gymnastics Association. A march which had almost 3,000 contestants, including units of the Netherlands-Indies Army.

The author discusses one of the scarcest Dutch police medals: the Swimming Proficiency Medal of the Amsterdam Police. This medal was instituted in 1935 to promote life saving swimming amongst the Amsterdam police officers. It was awarded to 43 individual officers until its presumed abandonment at the end of 1942. It was awarded in bronze for a first participation in the tests, in silver for three participations and in gold for five.

Op 27 november 1914 kreeg het Nederlandse Rode Kruis bij Koninklijk besluit toestemming op eigen eigen kosten een zichtbaar te dragen Kruis en een Medaille van Verdienste voor verdiensten in of jegens de vereniging uit te reiken.

In de 100 jaar die volgden kregen zo'n 10.000 personen een dergelijke onderscheiding. Dit boek, waaraan door een team van ongeveer 20 mensen is gewerkt, geeft kort een samenvatting van de geschiedenis van deze onderscheiding en de portretten van 20 van deze dragers.