This coming Prince’s Day,15 September, 11 Wageningen students will line the route taken by the Golden Carriage carrying Willem- Alexander and Maxima from Palace Noordeinde to the Binnenhof. These students are members of the Wageningen student militia named Transvaal, and they will form the guard of honour for the Royal Procession. Dressed to the nines, in a stiffl y starched, baking hot uniform and wearing a hat, they will stand for hours waiting for the Golden Carriage. ‘Sometimes if it is sunny, students faint,’ tells Luc Meerkerk, Transvaal’s secretary. ‘Last year a student in the Rotterdam student militia had to throw up. But it is so cool to see the king and queen riding past just two metres away from you.’
It is one of the highlights of the year for the Wageningen student militia. At the marchpast on 5 May they also stand along the route forming a guard of honour, and on 4 May they stand among the colonels and generals of the Dutch army on the Grebbe mountain and they lay a wreath at the war memorial. Every year a group of them – carrying packs weighing 10 kilos – walks the route for military personnel in the Nijmegen Four-Day March. In addition, there is always a lot of enthusiasm for the gun training, which is organized by the Ministry of Defence, and – since recently – Transvaal board members undergo some of the initiation rituals for new army recruits.
The bond with Defence is indeed strong, says Stef Heijink, president of Transvaal. This alliance can be traced back to Prince Bernhard, who brought renewed vigour to the student militias in the Netherlands after the Second World War. ‘Transvaal was founded in 1900 by students who felt moved by the plight of the Boers in South Africa,’ says Stef. ‘Little is known of the early years, but it is clear that the society was dwindling away until Prince Bernhard took the student militias under his wing after WWII.’ In 1947 he became the patron of the Wageningen student militia.
Despite the attention paid to the history and traditions of the society, Transvaal’s current members don’t exude an air of military fanaticism. Their mini-club at Ceres is richly decorated with not only German Mauser rifl es, street name signs and other military paraphernalia, but also empty juniper gin bottles (‘the officers’ drink at the Ministry of Defence’)
, and it smells of stale beer. On the committee table stands an ashtray of cigarette ends. ‘We have "a thing" with the Ministry of Defence, but we never lose sight of the student-like aspect,’ says Luc. ‘Traditions and regularly having a drink, I suppose you could say that’s what we’re about. If the two can go hand in hand, then we’ve hit the jackpot.’
Transvaal is known for its main activity: shooting. The armed forces offer Transvaal members gun training with the semiautomatic weapons used by the army. Every year 36 members take the course: first theory, then shooting using a simulator, fi nally shooting with live ammunition. ‘The moment that a fi rearm like that is put in your hands is very special,’ says Luc. ‘When you go and shoot together, you get up especially early on a Saturday to go to the fi ring range,’ says Stef. ‘When I fire my first shot and I smell the gunpowder fumes, I even get a little sentimental.’
Traditions and regularly having a drink, I suppose you could say that’s what we’re about
But the impression that Transvaal consists of a gang of trigger-happy students is incorrect, says Stef. ‘We’re seen as being a bit iffy. But we aren’t strange or secretive. It’s just that there’s fun to be had in maintaining that image to some extent. And we do want to be remain a little bit exclusive.’ In contrast to the other student militias in the Netherlands, Transvaal is primarily a social society. ‘I joined because of the cool activities and because there’s a real group feeling,’ says Stef, ‘not because I hoped to have a career at the Ministry of Defence. At the other student militias, by contrast, a lot of members do join the armed forces.’ Nevertheless, the army finds it contacts with Transvaal valuable, believes Luc. ‘The army is always interested in highly-educated people. And there’s no study programme in Wageningen that isn’t interesting to the armed forces. We know about land and water management, road building, policy … It is a big pool to fish in. At the end of the day, there may not be that many students who join the army, but the investment certainly pays off.’
Transvaal is a male bastion. Of the 90 members, just 20 are women and the ladies are barred from holding an executive position. Don’t they think that is a little old-fashioned? ‘I think it’s natural it should be like that, it’s never been otherwise,’ says Stef. ‘After all, it’s a man’s world, isn’t it? There’s a lot of macho behaviour between the student militias. We are one of the few student militias that women can join.’ A woman on the board is indeed a topic of discussion within the society, says Luc. ‘It is always diffi cult to make any change to traditions in the society. But it may happen.’
In any event, on this year’s ‘third Tuesday in September’ women will be part of the guard of honour for the Royal Procession. Stef and Luc will be there too. For Stef it will be the fi rst time; Luc took part last year. ‘From the ADO Den Haag stadium, where we get changed every year, we and the other Dutch student militias were driven under police escort to the Malieveld. That was really great. And that’s only the start.’
Photo: Sven Menschel and Transvaal/Ceres