TOPIC:

Served: Staats Artillerie. Awarded the DTD (Dekoratie voor Trouwe Dienst) and received the Wound Ribbon (Lint voor Verwonding).

Biography credited to Johan Wolfaardt

Crikey Brett - that is one helluva moustache! I take it you added Kroon to your growing ABO collection?

Hello Rory, I can’t deny that I made my best effort to gain his ABO today at Noonans, but my pockets could not match the winning bidder

Thanks Gruffydd, herewith a specimen signature of 1st Lieutenant TH Kroon, within a cachet of the Commander of the State Artillery. Also, the complete bio (included in the preface to Trichard's memoirs) of Kroon by the late historian OJO Ferreira.



Kroon, Thomas (*Amsterdam, 26.10.1848 – †Pretoria, 13.6.1936), officer of the State Artillery, Transvaal Republic, was the son of Jan Frederick Kroon and his wife, Alida Juliana [Goldschmeding].

K. went to school in the Netherlands, after which he was conscripted into the Grenadiers and Jagers Regiment on 7.5.1868. He was promoted corporal on 1.10.1868 and sergeant on 20.6.1870. After completing his military service, he and his brother went into the tabacco business, an enterprise which was so successful that it soon developed into a wholesale concern. When his brother died K. came to South Africa to accept an appointment with a tabacco company in Rustenburg, but on arrival in the Transvaal at the end of 1890 he found that this company had ceased to exist.

For a year-and-a-half he made a living by teaching on W.P. Prinsloo’s farm Boschpoort in the Bronkhorstspruit ward, Pretoria district. Then (1893) he went to teach at the Erasmus School on J.E. Erasmus’s farm Randjesfontein where he enjoyed putting the young farm boys through their paces in drilling exercises. From 1.8.1893 to 9.4.1894 he was employed as clerk in the service of the Nederlandsche Zuid-Afrikaansche Spoorweg-Maatschappij (N.Z.A.S.M.).

Both President S.J.P. Kruger and Commandant-General P.J. Joubert came to hear of K.’s interest in military matters and after becoming a citizen of the Transvaal Republic on 1.3.1894, he was appointed as member of the ‘Commissie van Examinatoren’ which was responsible for the officers’ examinations for the State Artillery. On 6.4.1894 he became temporary instructor to the Rijdende Artillerie en Politie Corps, teaching the artillerymen the ordinary school subjects in the shed where the guns were kept. Among other things, Artillery Science was also included in the syllabus for the officers’ examination. In adition K. instructed the artillerists in the catechism since membership of the Proteastant church was an admission requirement for the officers’ examination. From 1.4.1895 to 6.5.1896 he was in turn acting second lieutenant-quartermaster of the Rijdende Artillerie, first lieutenant and, from July 1896, first lieutenant-adjudant.

K. took part in the expedition against Mphephu in 1898 and on the outbreak of the Second Anglo-Boer War, a year later, he left for the Natal border with a section of the State Artillery under command of Lieutenant-Colonel S.P.E. Trichard. There he participated in the military operations at Dundee (20.10.1899), Colenso (15.12.1899) and the siege of Ladysmith (2.11.1899-28.2.1900). On 3.3.1900 he was appointed honorary chaplain of the State Artillery. Shortly afterwards he left for the Orange Free State with Lieutant-Colonel Trichard and later went to the Eastern Transvaal where he was involved in various battles. Towards the end of the war he was captured by the British troops at Balmoral and exiled to St. Helena. On 1.11.1921 he was awarded the Anglo-Boer War Medal and the ‘Lint voor wonden’, in recognition of his services.

On his return to the Transvaal K. served for a time, starting on 23.5.1904, as chairman of a branch of the Het Volk Party in Pretoria and remained a follower of Generals L. Botha and J.C. Smuts all his life. At President S.J.P Kruger’s funeral in Pretoria on 16.12.1904 he acted as chief of the guard of honour, which consisted of veteran artillerists of the T.R. From 1905 to 1907 he served as commandant, with the rank of captain, of the Special Citizen Police which was responsible for the Chinese cordon round Johannesburg. On 12.12.1908 he was elected chairman of the executive committee of the Bond van Oud-Republikeinse Militêre, this consisted of veteran artillerists of the T.R. who had remained faithful to the cause right up to the end of the war. From 17.4.1909 to 26.8.1911 he acted as commandant of the Special Police who had to maintain control over the farms at Pienaar’s River and Waterberg, where people were riddled with East Coast Fever.

He was appointed captain at the military school (School van Instructie) [ZUIDAFRIKAANSE MILITAIRE SCHOOL] in Bloemfontein on 12.1.1912 and in 1914 assisted, in a temporary capacity, in setting up the depot of the South African Mounted Rifles at Tempe. He was promoted major on 1.8.1915 and appointed officer commanding the artillery barracks in Pretoria on 11.8.1915, a position he occupied until 17.12.1921 when he retired [as Captain (Honorary Major)] owing to his advanced age. He spent his last years quietly in Pretoria. He was awarded the British War Medal on 1.12.1920 for his service in the First World War (1914-1918).

In 1903 K. was responsibible for compiling the memoirs of S.P.E. Trichard entitiled: ‘Geschiedenis, werken en streven van S.P.E. Trichard, luitenent-kolonel der vroegere Staats-artillerie, Z.A.R., door hemelze beschreven’ and ‘Mijne onaangenaamheden gedurende den oorlog door S.P.E. Trichard, luitenant-kolonel der vroegere Staats-Artillerie’. Some of his occasional poems and songs were also published, for example Op den 68 sten geboortedag van ZHEd. den Staatspresident der Z.A. Republiek, 10 October 1893 and Pretoria Vrijvilliger-Corps Lied.

According to his testimonials K. was a widely read, diligent and gifted teacher. He was also a brave and able officer who carried out his instructions to the letter. In addition, he was a dedicated member of the Geref. Kerk, and gave spiritual ministration to sick persons in the congregation when it was required. That he had a great deal of influence in the community is apparent from the fact that on 17.12.1912 General L. Botha asked him to use his influence to pour oil on troubled waters when Botha resigned as Prime Minister and was again asked to form a cabinet.

On 22.7.1875 he married Neeltje Catharina Dijksterhuis (*23.2.1845 – †6.11.1929). They had two sons and two daughters. There are photographs of K. in the National Cultural-historical and Open-air Museum in Pretoria.