The last Peacekeeper to die (before WW1)

In a few weeks time, on 28 June 2014, it will be exactly one hundred years since the assassination of the Archduke Ferdinand in Sarajevo, triggered the start of World War 1. Commemorative activities to mark that tragic date will occur, as will the honouring of millions sacrificed during the 4 years of conflict that followed.

Our family will also remember what happened exactly a fortnight before the assassination, in nearby Albania, when our great grandfather Lieutenant Colonel Lodewijk Thomson, above, was killed whilst leading a Dutch peace keeping mission. The mission was established a year earlier by the ambassadors of the great powers of the time (including England, France, Russia and Germany) to stabilise the Balkans and raise a “gendarmerie” to protect the newly independent principality of Albania from a diverse range of internal and external threats.

Whilst the mission failed and was largely forgotten soon after the war commenced, I think it is important to recognise that right up until the very start of the war, there were European statesmen from all sides and soldiers, actively seeking to find a peaceful resolution to the Balkan conflicts.

Together with my great grandfather, some were prepared to die for one.

At 11am on Sunday, 15 June 2014 our family will place a small white wreath in Thomson’s memory at the new Peace Keeping memorial in the back corner of Anglesea Barracks. Whilst planned to be a small, family affair, anyone wishing to remember the efforts of pre-war peacekeepers (or peacekeepers in general), are welcome to attend and perhaps place a white flower(s) of their own. (Parking is available on the parade ground, exit via the lower gate).

Further information on the 1914 Albanian peace keeping mission can be found at …

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lodewijk_Thomson
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Conference_of_1913
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Gendarmerie
http://www.siger.org/albania/en

… or phone Hans Willink on 0418 121 896