Jean Jacques Rambonnet

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Cort van der Linden
Preceded byNicolaas Bosboom
Succeeded byBonifacius Cornelis de Jonge
Personal details
Born(1864-03-08)8 March 1864
Wijhe, Netherlands
Died3 August 1943(1943-08-03) (aged 79)
Rotterdam, Netherlands
Resting placeGeneral Cemetery, The Hague, Netherlands
Political partyIndependent Liberal
Spouses
  • Marie Jeanne Arnoldine Antoinette Uhlenbeck (1873–1940)
  • Anna Christina ten Bosch (1843–1921)
Naval officer
Military service
AllegianceNetherlands
Branch/serviceRoyal Netherlands Navy
Years of service1883–1913
RankVice admiral
Commands
Battles/warsFlores Expedition 1904
Awards
Chief Scout
of the Netherlands
In office
1928–1937

Jean Jacques Rambonnet (8 March 1864,

Chief Scout of the Netherlands prior to 2021.[1]

Family

Rambonnet's great-great-great-grandfather Frédéric Louis Rambonnet (1684–1755) was a member of the

Bishop of Liège. His great-great-grandfather, also named Jean Jacques Rambonnet (1713–1768) and the son of Frédéric Louis Rambonnet, was a Walloon minister. Rambonnet's great-grandfather, F. L. Rambonnet (1751–1811), was a member of the legislative body for the Overijssel department.[citation needed
]

Rambonnet's paternal grandfather, also named Jean Jacques Rambonnet (1793–1873), was a

officer and a knight of the Military Order of William.[citation needed
]

Rambonnet's father, Frédéric Louis Rambonnet (1827–1900), was mayor of

Jonkvrouw Sara Maria Cornelia Meijer (1837–1921).[citation needed
]

Rambonnet's brother, also named Frédéric Louis Rambonnet (1867–1949), was a vice admiral, and another brother, Henri Gerard Rambonnet (1873–1961), was a major general of artillery. Rambonnet's brother-in-law Henri Marchant (1869–1956) was a minister.[citation needed]

Rambonnet married Marie Jeanne Arnoldine Antoinette Uhlenbeck (1873–1940), daughter of Vice Admiral Christian Elisa Uhlenbeck (1840–1897), and Anna Christina ten Bosch (1843–1921) — sister of, among others, Vice-Admiral and member of the

German occupation of the Netherlands as commander of the Spoorwacht and district commander of the Landwacht in Overijssel.[2]

The Rambonnet family has been included in the Nederland's Patriciaat since 1939.[3]

Naval career

1883–1903

Rambonnet was educated at the

luitenant ter zee second class, effective 16 October 1885.[9]

In October 1886, Rambonnet was transferred to the ram turret ship

ironclad gunboat HNLMS Geep, then relinquished command of her on 16 October 1896 to begin a military hydrography assignment at The Hague.[14]

On 1 September 1897, Rambonnet was appointed officer-instructor at the Royal Naval Institute at Willemsoord.[15] On 11 October 1902 he departed Genoa, Italy, aboard the steamship SS Koning Willem III bound for Batavia.[16] After his arrival in the Netherlands East Indies, he served aboard the protected cruiser HNLMS Utrecht. He transferred to the protected cruiser HNLMS Zeeland in July 1903, then became commanding officer of the gunboat HNLMS Koetei.[17]

Expedition to Flores and Adonara

Rambonnet was the commanding officer of the flotilla vessel

Ende on the south coast of Flores to restore order there in consultation with the resident of Timor
and dependencies.

At Ende, Mataram's landing detachment went ashore, as did a 120-man landing detachment from Gelderland, with both detachments under Rambonnet's overall command.

Military William Order by Royal Decree No. 13 of 17 March 1905 for his performance at Flores and Adonara.[21] He lectured on the expedition and about the burning of kampongs at Flores by the native troops at a meeting of the members of the Naval Association on 8 November 1906, and his lecture later was incorporated into the Association's records.[20]

1905–1913

On 17 June 1905, Rambonnet returned to the Netherlands aboard Utrecht.[22] He was temporarily inactivated there on 24 October 1905[23] while awaiting his next assignment. He returned to active duty in 1906 when he was seconded to the Department of the Navy in the Netherlands East Indies. He departed the Netherlands as a passenger aboard the steamship Koning Willem III[24] and took up his new duties in the Netherlands East Indies on 16 July 1906, working in the Second Department (the materiel department). He became the chief of the department in October 1906,[25] and by royal decree was promoted to Kapitein-luitenant ter zee on 16 November 1906.[26]

In July 1910, Rambonnet returned to the Netherlands via private travel, and was inactivated there

coastal defense ship HNLMS Evertsen in 1911.[29] Under his command, Evertsen departed Nieuwediep on 17 July 1911 for a training cruise in the North Sea.[30] She arrived in Aberdeen, Scotland, on 29 July 1911. During another cruise, Evertsen called at Bergen, Norway, on 3 June 1912 and reached Ulvik, Norway, on 30 June 1912 before returning to Nieuwediep.[31]

Meanwhile, a debate had begun over the construction of Dutch

Espana-class battleships, 15,700-ton ships which mounted eight 305-millimetre (12 in) guns and could make 22 knots (41 km/h; 25 mph)[32] — gave a lecture entitled "A Core of Heavy Ships for Our Naval Forces," in which he questioned the minimum requirements for capital ships for the Royal Netherlands Navy and wondered whether Dutch ships met those requirements.[33] The issue became a matter of national debate, and repeated rejections of his Pantsership 1912 proposal finally led Wenholt to leave office in May 1912. Minister of War Hendrikus Colijn, who became acting Minister of the Navy upon Wentholt's departure, was a proponent of expansion of the Royal Netherlands Navy,[34] and in June 1912 he established a State Committee of naval experts charged with studying various issues concerning Dutch naval policy, especially the defense of the Netherlands East Indies against Japan.[34][35] He appointed Rambonnet to the committee, which by July 1912 reached the conclusion — based on erroneous reporting that Japan soon would have a fleet of nine dreadnought battleships and battlecruisers — that the Netherlands needed a fleet of nine dreadnought battleships for the defense of the Netherlands East Indies, the vessels to displace 27,000 tons, mount eight 345-millimetre (13.6 in) guns, and have a maximum speed of 27 knots (50 km/h; 31 mph).[32][34]

In 1912 and 1913 Rambonnet made several cruises in command of Evertsen. He relinquished command of her on 29 August 1913. He subsequently received a promotion to kapitein ter zee.

Political career

The Cort van der Linden cabinet. Rambonnet is seated second from right.
Rambonnet (center) at Amsterdam Centraal station in Amsterdam in 1914.[34]
Rambonnet in 1920.

Rambonnet was appointed Minister of the Navy on 29 August 1913,

dockyard
, where its director and commander, Vice Admiral G. F. Tydeman, received him.

Concerned by the potential threat the Imperial Japanese Navy posed to Dutch interests in East Asia, Rambonnet advocated that the Royal Netherlands Navy adopt a version of the "risk theory" developed by Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz for the Imperial German Navy.[37] Rambonnet's version called for the maintenance of a Dutch fleet in the Netherlands East Indies large enough that it would outnumber the Japanese fleet when operating with the forces of a friendly power — which the Dutch hoped would be the United Kingdom or the United States — and be sufficient to deter or block any Japanese invasion.[37] Accordingly, he reconvened the State Committee on 13 November 1913 to begin planning the [[Dutch 1913 battleship proposal |design and construction of a fleet]] adequate for a "risk theory"-based defense of the Netherlands East Indies.

superdreadnoughts, five 4,000-ton cruisers, and seven submarines.[37] The Netherlands lacked domestic shipyards capable of building warships larger than cruisers, so Rambonnet's plan called for construction of the superdreadnoughts in foreign yards.[37]

By the summer of 1914, Rambonnet believed he had enough political support for the construction plan to be approved in the 1914 Fleet Law, and he prepared to bring it before the House of Representatives,[39][37] hoping to begin construction of the first of the new battleships in December 1914.[39] Before the House could vote on the plan, however, World War I broke out in late July 1914, and the belligerent powers on whom the Netherlands had to rely for the construction of superdreadnoughts became fully occupied with their own wartime naval construction needs.[37]

Although Dutch shipyards could not build superdreadnoughts, they could construct cruisers, so Rambonnet continued to advocate cruiser construction after the outbreak of the war.[37] Uninterested in following the German doctrine of using cruisers for commerce raiding, he nonetheless was impressed with the capability of Imperial German Navy cruisers to operate independently in remote areas in the early months of the war, outgunning weaker opponents and outrunning stronger ones.[37] With the Netherlands unable to acquire superdreadnoughts until sometime after the war ended, Rambonnet proposed an innovative naval operating concept for the Far East:[37] Rather than using Dutch cruisers to lure an enemy battlefleet into combat with a larger friendly battlefleet on favorable terms, he proposed using cruisers to lure enemy forces into an ambush by Dutch submarines.[40] With this idea, he was able to unite his fellow advocates of "risk theory" and the acquisition of superdreadnoughts with Dutch naval thinkers who preferred that the Royal Netherlands Navy instead pursue a Jeune École strategy with less emphasis on capital ships.[41] He also was able to take advantage of a favorable overall Dutch political disposition toward naval expansion to secure the approval of further naval construction despite the Dutch inability to acquire superdreadnoughts, and his proposal to focus on cruiser and submarine construction until circumstances allowed the acquisition of superdreadnoughts met with widespread approval.[42]

Rambonnet wanted to depart from the standard Dutch practice of building cruisers to match contemporary foreign cruisers and instead acquire new cruisers which exceeded the capabilities of foreign ones.[43] He chose the Japanese Chikuma-class protected cruisers as the standard that the new Dutch cruisers had to surpass.[43] The result was the Java-class light cruisers.[39][43] For submarines, he supported a plan for the construction of small submarines for operations in Dutch waters and of larger ones for service in the Netherlands East Indies. He secured funding for six coastal submarines — three each of the O 9 and O 12 classes — and 12 larger patrol submarines of the K II, K III, K V, K VIII, and K XI classes.[44]

When the Royal Netherlands Navy budget was discussed in the Dutch Senate in February 1915, Deputy Jan Dirk Baron van Wassenaer van Rosande questioned whether the appointment of flag officers could be carried out in accordance with established rules. Rambonnet responded by calling mistrust in the integrity of the naval authorities unjustified and defending the navy against, among other things, the claims of retired Vice Admiral Frederik Jan Stokhuyzen the way in which Vice Admiral Gustaaf Paul van Hecking Colenbrander had been treated.[45]

While serving as Minister of the Navy, Rambonnet took on additional duties as acting

Major General Nicolaas Bosboom until Bonifacius Cornelis de Jonge took up duties as minister of war. As Minister of the Navy during World War I, in which the Netherlands was neutral, he had to deal with attacks on Dutch ships and demands from belligerents with regard to shipping traffic. Minister of Foreign Affairs Dr. Jonkheer John Loudon allowed a British search of a Dutch merchant convoy bound for the Netherlands East Indies, prompting a conflict between Rambonnet — who considered this to be contrary to international law regarding neutral countries — and his colleagues over the extent to which the Netherlands should comply with such demands. The dispute led Rambonnet to resign on 26 June 1918. Queen Wilhelmina emphatically demonstrated her support for him by appointing him as chamberlain in extraordinary service two days after his resignation. He had meanwhile been promoted to rear admiral
.

Rambonnet received a lifetime appointment as a member of the Council of State on 13 January 1920 (replacing Vice Admiral Pieter ten Bosch, who had resigned his position)[46] and was sworn in as a Minister of State during the same meeting as another new member, Jan A. Loff.[47]

Scouting

Chief Scout of the Netherlands. He continued to hold this position until just after the 5th World Scout Jamboree in 1937. No one served as Chief Scout in the Netherlands again until 24 September 2021, when Freek Vonk was appointed Chief Scout of Scouting Nederland.[48]

Rambonnet received the

Sea Scouts, the Dutch vessel MS Rambonnet
.

Other work

Rambonnet was Vice President of the Royal National Association for Rescue and First Aid in Accidents[49] and received the Grand Cross of Merit of the Netherlands Red Cross for his work. He also was a member of the Honorary Committee for the Naval Monument in 1920.[50]

Death

Rambonnet died on 3 August 1943 and was buried in the General Cemetery in The Hague.[51]

Honors and awards

See also

References

Footnotes

  1. ^ Wilson p. 33 67
  2. ^ Offervaardigheid, de Landwachter (in Dutch), 9 February 1945.
  3. ^ List of families in the Nederland's Patriciaat, volumes 1 (1910) through 91 (2012) (in Dutch)
  4. Algemeen Handelsblad
    (in Dutch), 24 September 1883.
  5. ^ Het Nieuws van de Dag: kleine courant (in Dutch), 24 October 1883.
  6. ^ Java-bode (in Dutch), 4 November 1884,
  7. ^ Java-bode (in Dutch), 27 January 1885.
  8. ^ Java-bode (in Dutch), 1 January 1885.
  9. ^ Algemeen Handelsblad (in Dutch), 13 October 1885.
  10. ^ Java-bode (in Dutch), 14 April 1888.
  11. ^ a b Algemeen Handelsblad (in Dutch), 29 June 1889.
  12. ^ Het Nieuws van de Dag: kleine courant (in Dutch)
  13. ^ Java-bode (in Dutch), 9 August 1892
  14. ^ De Amsterdammer (in Dutch), 16 October 1896.
  15. ^ De Locomotief (in Dutch), 13 September 1897.
  16. ^ Algemeen Handelsblad (in Dutch).
  17. ^ Het Nieuws van de Dag: kleine courant (in Dutch), 23 July 1903.
  18. ^ Kleinzoon van kapitein-ter-zee J.F.A. Coertzen en van generaal H.M. de Kock (in Dutch)
  19. ^ Flores. Algemeen Handelsblad (in Dutch), 10 November 1904.
  20. ^ a b Het Nieuws van de Dag voor Nederlands-Indië (in Dutch), 12 January 1906.
  21. ^ De Tijd (in Dutch), 4 August 1943.
  22. ^ Het Nieuws van de Dag: kleine courant (in Dutch), 4 August 1905.
  23. ^ Algemeen Handelsblad (in Dutch), 10 September 1905.
  24. ^ Algemeen Handelsblad (in Dutch), 1 June 1906.
  25. ^ Algemeen Handelsblad (in Dutch), 9 August 1906.
  26. ^ De Tijd (in Dutch), 10 November 1906.
  27. ^ Het Nieuws van de Dag: kleine courant (in Dutch), 2 July 1910
  28. ^ De Tijd (in Dutch), 31 August 1910.
  29. ^ naval-encyclopedia.com The Evertsen in service 1896-1920, September 5, 2022, Accessed 22 September 2022
  30. ^ Rotterdams Nieuwsblad (in Dutch), 19 July 1911.
  31. ^ Het Nieuws van de Dag: kleine courant (in Dutch), 1 June 1912.
  32. ^ a b c d Road to Strength: Battleshipplan 1912 Accessed 1 October 2022
  33. ^ Het Nieuws van de Dag: kleine courant (in Dutch), 29 February 1912.
  34. ^ a b c d e Noppen, p. 5.
  35. ^ Nieuwsblad van het Noorden (in Dutch), 6 June 1912.
  36. ^ Voorstelling van de nieuwe ministers, Nieuwsblad van het Noorden (in Dutch), 6 September 1913.
  37. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Noppen, p. 6.
  38. ^ Het Nieuws van de Dag: kleine courant (in Dutch), 4 November 1913.
  39. ^ a b c d e f g netherlandsnavy.nl Road to Strength: Battleshipplan 1912 Accessed 2 October 2022
  40. ^ Noppen, pp. 6–7.
  41. ^ Noppen, p. 7.
  42. ^ Noppen, p. 7.
  43. ^ a b c Noppen, p. 8.
  44. ^ Noppen, p. 26.
  45. ^ Het Nieuws van de Dag voor Nederlands-Indië (in Dutch), 16 February 1915.
  46. ^ Nieuwsblad van het Noorden (in Dutch), 5 August 1943.
  47. ^ Het Centrum (in Dutch), 14 January 1920.
  48. ^ "Freek Vonk aan de slag voor Scouting Nederland". RD.nl (in Dutch).
  49. ^ Limburger Koerier (in Dutch), 22 June 1920.
  50. ^ Algemeen Handelsblad (in Dutch), 23 April 1920.
  51. ^ Overlijdensadvertentie, Het Vaderland (in Dutch), 4 August 1943.
  52. ^ Provinciaalse Gelderse Courant (in Dutch), 5 August 1943.

Bibliography

  • Noppen, Ryan K. The Royal Netherlands Navy of World War II. New York: Osprey Publishing, 2020.
    ISBN 9781472841919

External links
Political offices
Preceded by
Minister of the Navy

1913–1918 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Minister of Colonial Affairs
Acting
1915–1916 		Succeeded by
Preceded by
Minister of War

Acting
1917 		Succeeded by
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