“Army brat.”

That was how my father, Servaas Gerardu, described himself when he talked about growing up in the Dutch East Indies. The phrase fit. This was a childhood across Java, shaped by military assignments, constant movement, and the changing landscapes of the Dutch East Indies. By the time he was a teenager, he had already lived in Malang, Tjimahi, Batoedjadjar, Batavia, Djocjakarta, Semarang, Magelang, Kalidjati, and finally Buitenzorg (see Historical Notes below for more detail), due to his father’s KNIL (Koninklijk Nederlands-Indisch Leger, or Royal Netherlands East Indies Army) military assignments across Java. 

Unlike many Indo families whose stories are rooted in one city or stretch back through generations in the same place, my father’s childhood was shaped by movement (“Indo” is a term commonly used for people of mixed European and Indonesian ancestry in the Dutch East Indies). New houses, new schools, new friends. Home was never tied to a single neighborhood or family compound. It was something larger and less fixed.

School photo, likely taken in Batavia around 1934. My father is believed to be about seven years old.
School photo, likely taken in Batavia around 1934. My father is probably about seven years old.

My grandfather entered the KNIL as an enlisted infantryman and later advanced through the ranks as a military cook, eventually becoming a sergeant. The family moved where the military sent them. 

My grandfather working as a KNIL cook, likely with the 21e Bataljon in Kaliurang, 1935.
My grandfather working as a KNIL cook, likely with the 21e Bataljon in Kaliurang, 1935.

By the late 1930s, childhood itself was beginning to change. The family was still following my grandfather’s KNIL assignments across Java, but my father was beginning to look ahead toward a future of his own.

My father with his sisters, likely photographed around 1938 in either Magelang or Kalidjati which is a good portrayal of what a childhood across Java may have looked like.
My father with his sisters, likely photographed around 1938 in either Magelang or Kalidjati.

After the move to Kalidjati, airplanes were suddenly everywhere, and my father became fascinated with them.

From then on, he wanted to become a pilot. In 1941, the family moved to Buitenzorg so he could attend the private Notaris de Graaf-Stichting HBS (a Dutch college-preparatory secondary school). It was one of the few moves shaped not only by military orders, but also by my father’s future. For the son of a KNIL cook, the opportunity to attend an HBS carried a different kind of meaning.

Newspaper announcement for the Notaris de Graaf-Stichting HBS in Buitenzorg, 1938.

Newspaper announcements for the Notaris de Graaf-Stichting HBS in Buitenzorg, 1938. See the translation in the Historical Notes below.

Newspaper article for the Notaris de Graaf-Stichting HBS in Buitenzorg, 1938.

At the time, they lived in a house in Buitenzorg at Gang Pabaton 4 (it no longer exists). My father remembered it clearly decades later. Four separate buildings sat on a raised platform connected by wooden walkways. The floors were green tile. The walls were covered in a pale yellow-white wash. There was an open sewer system beneath the toilet, and every day he had to fill the bathroom water basin by hand, a chore that took close to an hour. Years later, he still paid close attention to how much water people used.

Bathing meant pouring water over yourself with cans. The family slept on mattress sacks stuffed with kapok fiber under mosquito nets that had to be carefully tucked in each night. Mosquito bites were simply part of everyday life. They rubbed leaves similar to citronella on their skin to keep insects away.

Everyone lived there except his oldest sister, who had already married at seventeen. Two or three live-in servants helped maintain the household. The family spoke mostly Dutch, though some Malay was likely mixed in because my grandmother spoke very little Dutch. Most of my father’s friends were Indo, though the family’s life outside the military compounds also led to friendships outside the military community, including Indonesian friends.

By all accounts, my father was smart, active, and maybe a bit of a smart aleck. As a boy among sisters, his world seems to have unfolded somewhat separately from theirs. The girls attended different schools, and by the time the family settled in Buitenzorg, his own future was beginning to take shape: school, airplanes, and the possibility of becoming a pilot.

Despite all the moving, the Dutch East Indies never felt temporary to him. The military towns, tropical cities, schools, airfields, and friendships across Java formed the landscape of his childhood. By the time the family arrived in Buitenzorg in 1941, Java was no longer just a series of postings on a military map.

It was home.

Historical Notes

LOCATIONS

Malang

A cooler highland city in East Java known during the colonial period for its schools, military presence, and European-style neighborhoods.

Tjimahi (now Cimahi)

A major KNIL garrison town near Bandung, strongly associated with military life during the Dutch East Indies period.

Batoedjadjar (now Batujajar)

A smaller military area west of Bandung that later became associated with army training facilities.

Batavia (now Jakarta)

The colonial capital of the Dutch East Indies and the political and administrative center of Dutch rule.

Djocjakarta (now Yogyakarta)

A cultural center of Java known for Javanese royal traditions, education, and proximity to Mount Merapi.

Semarang

An important port city on Java’s north coast with strong railway, military, and commercial connections.

Magelang

A quieter inland military town in Central Java surrounded by volcanic mountains and plantations.

Kalidjati (now Kalijati)

Known for its military airfield, Kalidjati became increasingly important to Dutch military aviation in the late 1930s.

Buitenzorg (now Bogor)

A mountain city south of Batavia known for its cooler climate, botanical gardens, schools, and government institutions.

HIGH SCHOOL

Notaris de Graaf-Stichting HBS was located at Tjikeumeuh 66 in Buitenzorg. I haven’t been able to identify the present-day address.

Notaris de Graaf-Stichting Schoolfeest Translation

At the annual H.B.S. party, the play The New System was performed this year, an impossible play about the school by the well-known Charivarius. Mr. K. Verboeket directed it, and under his leadership the more-than-amusing comedy was performed smoothly.

The first act, which presents a meeting of the supervisory committee, was the least successful, it must be admitted. It is not easy, when you are not yet twenty, to pretend you are sixty. (This wish should be understood in a double sense.)

The second act was undoubtedly the best.

It takes place in the “detention room” of an H.B.S. student, and there the youthful performers could naturally behave like themselves. In the third act, we see a class in which the new system has been introduced. This was somewhat exaggerated, but there was still some spot-on mockery.

An extraordinary success was achieved by Miss Lelienkrans as “Bluebeard,” Dr. Van Tegenvoort, the chairman of the supervisory committee, and Piet Moor, the student who meddles in everything. The servant girl Jaantje was also portrayed well.

A girls’ choir under Miss Kehlenbrink performed several songs commendably. There were many flowers. A dance afterward concluded the successful evening.

Notaris de Graaf Stichting H.B.S. V Buitenzorg Translation

Beginning of the new term: 1 August 1938.

A fifth class, section B (Mathematics and Science section), will be opened.

Information and registration for students for the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th classes in the mornings with the Director in the school building, Tjikeumeuh 66.