Merdeka by Chris Moorhouse sampler

chris moorhouse is a Yorkshire man by birth. After gaining a chemistry
degree, he worked as an analytical chemist for ten years then in the computer
industry before moving to Ayr, Scotland, in 1999 and working in a bookshop.
Currently living in Bicester, Oxfordshire, Chris is helping to educate his two
young grandsons to be book lovers.

Merdeka
One Man’s Fight to Free a Nation
from Colonial Oppression
CHRIS MOORHOUSE

First Published 2019
isbn: 978-1-910745-88-5
The author’s right to be identified as author of this book under the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 has been asserted.
The paper used in this book is recyclable. It is made from low chlorine
pulps produced in a low energy, low emission manner from renewable forests.
Printed and bound by Ashford Colour Press, Gosport
Typeset in 11 point Sabon by Lapiz
© Chris Moorhouse 2019

Dedicated to Rene Atkinson

Contents
Acknowledgements9
Timeline11
Introduction15
Part 1 The Johan van Oldenbarneveldt 1944–517
Part 2 Batavia: Dutch East Indies 1945–6 58
Part 3 Indonesian Office, London 1946–53 140
Part 4 Jakarta, Indonesia 1953–60 169
Part 5 Ardnamurchan Peninsula, Scotland 1960–9 186
Part 6 Washington 1973–80 200
Part 7 Pembrokeshire and The Good Life 1970–80 220
Part 8 Barr, Scotland and Luath Press 1980–2000 231
Part 9 Napiers 1988– 255
Part 10 Alloway and Retirement 2000–2017 261
Appendices265
7

Acknowledgements
with grateful thanks to Jan McHale for her help and encouragement.
Thank you to Alice Latchford for her helpful suggestions, and to Gavin
MacDougall at Luath Press for giving me the opportunity to publish this
biography of two remarkable people. Thanks also to my wife, Anthea, for
always being there to support me.
9

Timeline
1922 30 August 1922 Tom Atkinson born in Consett,
County Durham
11 October 1922 Rene Box born in Finchley
1936 Tom Atkinson, at age 14, went to
Spain to enlist in the international
brigade but was sent home as he was
too young to fight in the Spanish
Civil War
1939–45 28 July 1941 Tom Atkinson enlists into the RAF
13 July 1943 Rene Box enlists into the WAAF
7 June 1944 Tom Atkinson lands on Normandy
beach as part of D-Day invasion
12 December 1944 Tom Atkinson and Rene Box board
the Johan van Oldenbarneveldt
bound for India
17 August 1945 Indonesia declares independence
13 October 1945 Tom Atkinson arrives in Batavia
1946–53 5 August 1946 Tom Atkinson demobbed from RAF
23 January 1947 Rene Box demobbed from WAAF
25 March 1947 The Linggadjati Agreement is signed
April 1947
Tom Atkinson marries Rene Box in
Finchley
1947 Subandrio arrives in uk as
Representative of Republic of
Indonesia
1947 Tom and Rene Atkinson move to
London to help run Indonesian Office
1949 Netherlands Government agrees to
transfer state control of Indonesia to
the local government
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merdeka
1950 Rene Atkinson starts work for
Eastern World
1950 Indonesian Embassy opens in
London and Subandrio becomes
Indonesian Ambassador to uk
27 September 1950 The Republic of Indonesia joins the
United Nations
1952–60 1952 Tom and Rene Atkinson move to
Jakarta
April 1955 Bandung Conference
May 1956 Tom accompanies President Sukarno
on a state visit to the United States;
a trip which included Sukarno’s
famous speech in San Francisco,
written by Tom
1960–9 Tom and Rene Atkinson run hotel in
Ardnamurchan peninsula, Scotland
1962 Tom accompanies President Sukarno
to the United Nations 17th General
Assembly
1965 Future president Suharto overthrows
President Sukarno
1969–80 1969 Tom and Rene Atkinson sell hotel
and move to Bexleyheath
1970 Tom and Rene Atkinson move to
Pembrokeshire
21 June 1971 Sukarno dies
1973–80 Tom Atkinson working for Diamantidi
1980–2000 1980 Tom and Rene Atkinson move to
Barr, Scotland
12

timeline
1981 Tom and Rene Atkinson start Luath
Press
1982 Year of Living Dangerously film
released
1990 Napiers reopens in Edinburgh
1995 Tom and Rene Atkinson invited to
Indonesian 50th year celebrations at
London Embassy and in Jakarta
1997 Tom and Rene Atkinson retire from
Luath Press
21 May 1997 Suharto resigns the presidency
2000– 2000 Tom and Rene Atkinson move to
Alloway
26 June 2007 Tom Atkinson dies
4 August 2017 Rene Atkinson dies
13

Introduction
i first met tom atkinson in 2003 when I was working for Ottakar’s
bookshop in Ayr. I helped Tom launch his latest book, Napiers History of
Herbal Healing, Ancient and Modern. Unfortunately, it wasn’t until after his
death, whilst talking with his widow, Rene, that I realised what a remarkable
life Tom had lived and how deeply he had been involved in helping Indonesia
gain independence from the Dutch.
Tom, a member of an RAF Commando Unit, first landed in Indonesia
in 1945 as part of a British occupying force designed to help the Dutch regain
colonial control of what they called the Dutch East Indies. Tom contacted
the leaders of the Indonesian fight for independence. Having just fought in
the Second World War to ensure freedom, and risking court martial, Tom
felt it was his duty to help the Indonesian People. This he did, by helping
to broadcast to the world what was happening in Indonesia. This helped
change world opinion and, thus, forced the Dutch to eventually agree to
independence.
After demob, Tom worked for the Indonesian Government, firstly in
their Embassy in London and then in Indonesia. Whilst living and working
in Jakarta, he travelled the world with President Sukarno and, for nearly ten
years, wrote all the speeches that Sukarno gave in the English language.
At this point, I realised just how instrumental Tom was in helping
Indonesia gain independence, which was generally unknown outside of his
family and close friends. That a British man was so important to the growth
of a new country on the other side of the world is information that should,
I believe, be in the public domain.
My view was strengthened when Rene mentioned that, after Indonesia,
she and Tom had run a hotel in the Ardnamurchan peninsula in northern
Scotland, had lived ‘the good life’ in Wales, and founded Luath Press. It
had also become obvious that any writing about Tom Atkinson’s life had to
include Rene. Their deep, and long lasting, love was a driving force behind
this story.
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merdeka
As it was not possible to talk with Tom, my information had to come
from other sources.
A series of interviews with Rene Atkinson gave the broad outline of their
life, together with much detail about certain parts.
Tom was an avid letter writer and, whilst separated from Rene, wrote
multi-page letters almost every day. A large part of these letters describes
Tom’s love for Rene, and discusses their future life together. But Tom also
wrote down in detail what he was doing, what his thought processes were,
and who he was meeting with. Thus, much of the detail about Tom’s life
comes from within these hundreds of letters.
Tom also left copies of several audio tapes. One is an interview by an
Indonesian journalist working for the BBC and covers Tom’s time in Indonesia.
Tom produced a few tapes for Professor Tim Lindsey at the University of
Melbourne also detailing his involvement with Indonesia.
Whilst I would have loved to interview Tom, I do believe most of the
relevant details of Tom and Rene’s life are included in this book. It is a
truly remarkable story of two amazing people. I feel privileged to have
known them.
16

Part 1
The Johan van Oldenbarneveldt
1944–5
corporal tom atkinson had never seen a large ship up close until he
marched along a Liverpool quay on 12 December 1944. The ship moored
there, one of many such large ships, was called the Johan van Oldenbarneveldt.
Tom was part of a contingent of 4,000 men and 200 WAAFs who were
destined to set sail, in convoy, for the Far East. Soon after embarking on
the Johan van Oldenbarneveldt, Tom felt the vibrations as the main engines
fired up in preparation for sailing. Almost immediately, there was a loud
bang, later discovered to be caused by a blown piston in the main engines,
and the engines stopped. Repairs started, but the men and the WAAFs were
kept on-board ship until she eventually sailed – alone, as the convoy was
long gone – on 21 December 1944, bound for Bombay.
[NOTE: The convoy was most likely OS.98/KMS.72, which departed
Liverpool on 13 December 1944 and consisted of 48 merchant ships, and
three escort vessels.]
The forthcoming voyage was destined to change the course of Tom’s life
in ways he could never have imagined.
Tom and his best friends, Peter Humphries and Alan ‘Mac’ McQuillan,
were part of the RAF Commando Force, their unit being designated 3210 SC.
The journey on the Johan van Oldenbarneveldt was almost certainly the
most important voyage of Tom’s life. It was on board that he met the woman
who was to become his wife and lifelong companion.
One of the 200 WAAFs on board the Johan van Oldenbarneveldt
was 22-year-old Rene Box. Rene, who came from East Finchley, was the
daughter of William John Edwin Box, a shoe shop owner, and Ada Box, née
Mew. Rene had two older brothers who were determined that Rene should
have the education they never did.
17

merdeka
Rene’s eldest brother, William Thomas, unenamoured with life working
in a shoe shop, had enlisted in the army. At the outbreak of the Second
World War, William was in the Grenadier Guards, Second Battalion, with
service number 2614268.
Rene had been evacuated at the outbreak of war, and whilst evacuated
she learnt that William had been killed near Caen as part of the Dunkirk
withdrawal. On hearing this devastating news, Rene went home to Finchley
and obtained work in a telephone exchange in the centre of London. She
became more than a little bored with this lifestyle and joined the WAAFs
on 13 July 1943. Rene was given different postings until volunteers were
required to go abroad, whence she gratefully accepted this opportunity.
It was fate that put Rene on the Johan van Oldenbarneveldt in Liverpool
in December 1946.
Mac remembers the meeting between the three friends and Rene:
It was the first all-RAF personnel troop ship to leave England. There
was nobody else, only air force people on it. About 4,000 men
and 200 WAAFs. It did cause a few problems. The WAAF officers
did have problems keeping them in order – there was a patrol
most evenings – they used to walk around the ship and look
under the lifeboats to see if they were moving. That is dead right.
We played chess and music to keep the boredom at bay.
Seasickness wasn’t quite so bad as it was a bigger boat than the
landing craft. Mind you when we went through the Bay of Biscay
there were 14 people on our table and only seven of us were
eating anything. We still did rations for 14 and the seven of us
that were eating ate double.
The men were billeted in all parts of the boat. We didn’t
have hammocks like most of them, well I didn’t have a
hammock anyhow.
When we were on the Johan van Oldenbarneveldt was when
Tom met Rene. We met three WAAFs one of whom was Rene,
and I can’t remember the names of the other two, fortunately.
Of course, they got off at Colombo and we went back up from
Colombo to Bombay.
Rene remembers the voyage and meeting Tom:
18

the johan van oldenbarneveldt
I volunteered to go to India. We embarked onto the troop ship
in Liverpool in December. Troops were allowed on deck, to mix
at certain times of the day. Boys were down below in the hold
with hammocks, and the girls were billeted in the cabins that had
been converted, six bunks to a cabin. The women were privileged
as we ate in the dining room, and the men had some mess room
somewhere. We met on deck. There were certain hours of the day
when music was broadcast on the Tannoys. We were allowed
to mix, boys and girls, on a particular deck at that time. You
couldn’t just wander over all the decks during the day and meet
up with the boys. It wasn’t allowed.
I met Tom under a Tannoy listening to classical music – The
Thieving Magpie by Rossini. On deck, we got chatting. Tom
and his mate were busy playing chess, and I suppose I was just
watching them as we milled around on the deck with nothing to
do. Finally, they said, ‘come and join us, do you want to learn
how to play chess?’ And really, I can’t say it was love at first sight,
but that’s where Tom and I first met, and at least got interested in
each other. He was going to India and so was I.
We continued to meet, during the intervals we were allowed
to get together, for the two weeks of the voyage. Half way across
the powers that be decided the war was really getting to an end
and they didn’t need WAAFs in India. The boys would carry on to
India and they would throw us WAAFs off in Sri Lanka – Ceylon
as it was then called. This was devastating to Tom and I. Good
Lord, we have to part. I went to Colombo as a wireless operator.
Tom went onto India, to Calcutta, Bombay and all those places.
For the next few months Rene and Tom’s relationship blossomed through
their letters. Tom was writing to Rene almost every day with letters of five, six
or even more pages. The overriding theme of all his letters was how deeply
he had fallen in love with Rene, how much she meant to him and how it had
changed his whole attitude to life. This is apparent from a letter Tom wrote
to Rene only a couple of days after the separation, on 15 January 1945 from
Bombay, an extract of which is shown below:
Did I ever tell you that you are the most wonderful girl in the
world and that I love you to distraction?
19

merdeka
Until we left the ship I spent most of my time sitting where
we had so often sat, and re-living all the anxieties and ecstasies
of those too few days. How I longed for you! Memories are very
beautiful things, but I think that I would, then have willingly
exchanged them all for one more glorious hour with you, so that
I could have felt once more the wonder of your nearness.
Since you left me, (oh sorrowful day!), I have been acutely
miserable and only the thought that you would be just as miserable
as myself has made life bearable. You see, I feel so sorry for you
that I forget to feel sorry for myself.
Love me always, darling, as I love you, so that our life together
can be one eternal dream of peace and exquisite happiness.
I have just written home and told them the news. I would love
to be at home when they receive the letter so that I could enjoy
their amazement. Contrary to my usual rule, I re-read the letter
and I found that it was a terrible jumble of quite unconnected
sentences with no sort of order behind them at all – this one is
probably the same. However, it is a fair indication of how I feel
and my present mental condition. It’s all your fault.
This country far surpasses anything I had ever visualised.
I can’t possibly begin to talk about it in this letter now and in
any case, I have found it impossible so far to look at it in any
reasonable sort of light. I am just watching and wondering and
impressing upon my mind the broad outlines.
One of the most amazing things is the capacity which
everyone of us has straight away developed for fruit. So far today
I have consumed fourteen oranges and eleven bananas! And Nick
and Pete have done just the same. So long as the money lasts we
intend to carry on in the same way because probably all too soon
we shan’t be able to get any more.
On 16 March 1945, only a few weeks after separation, Tom was
writing to Rene:
There were three letters from you today, and all of them so very
lovely that I fell in love with you all over again. Not that there
20

the johan van oldenbarneveldt
is anything odd about that, of course, it happens every day, but
somehow it seemed very special today. Possibly it was because
I was looking forward to your letters so much that when they came
they just released the floodgates of my love. There was something
peculiar about it, something that has never happened quite the
same before. I have told you before that when I read your letters
you seem to be close beside me, but today you were actually in the
tent sitting on the bed beside me, you ran your fingers through my
hair and said, quite distinctly, ‘Tom darling, you see I’ve come to
you.’ Just what it was I don’t know, and I certainly don’t wish to
analyse it, otherwise I shall find myself attributing it to the sun or
too much tiffin. No, something happened today, something very
special and wonderful, and for the first time in my young life
I don’t want a rational explanation of it. I know very little about
telepathy, but maybe in the words of the lion tamer who lost his
head to his pet exhibit, ‘There is something in it.’
You have had this feeling twice, and (it may be important)
you described one of them in a letter which I was holding when
it happened.
Whatever it is, I certainly hope that it happens again.
Then four days later, on 20 March 1945, Tom finished a letter to Rene with
the words:
There has been quite a time lag between these last sentences. The
char wallah has been around and of course, there had to be
the usual natter over the char. Consequently, I have rather lost the
thread of what I was talking about.
But there is certainly one subject about which I can never
lose the thread. That subject, of course, is you and me. You know
the poem which begins: ‘If I should sit by some tarn in the hills,
using its ink as the spirit wills, to write of earths creatures, its live
willed things?’
The poet said that he could exhaust the tarn writing of the
wonders of the earth. I know that I could exhaust the tarn in
writing about you, my dearest, for, compared with the complexity
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merdeka
of all the wonders you have shown to me, earths treasures are
simple and easy.
You are the living incarnation of everything which I love and
treasure, and without you now, life would be just not worth living.
Everything about you haunts me all the time; your beautiful
and trustful face, your faint-scented hair, your speaking hands,
your warm soft body.
You have given me your love and taken mine and we belong
to each other now and for always, for the love which we both give
is complete and embraces every part of our lives.
Goodnight, Rene, and bless you, my darling.
[NOTE: The poem is The Scribe by Walter De La Mare.]
In his letters, as well as his love for Rene, Tom also described in detail
his contacts with the Indian people in general, and the Indian Communist
Party. He also expounded on his theories of Socialism, Religion, and the arts.
At some time during this exchange of letters, Tom and Rene were talking
about getting married, starting a family, and generally planning their life
together. Rene wrote to her parents to tell them she had fallen in love and
considered herself engaged to a wonderful boy she had met on the troopship.
Her father’s comment was that she must have been ‘moonstruck on deck’
and didn’t take it too seriously.
***
Tom was born in Consett, County Durham, on 30 August 1922. His early
life was uneventful until, in 1936, at the age of 14, Tom ran away from
school and travelled to Spain to fight in their Civil War. On arriving in Spain,
he was immediately sent home after being told he was too young to fight.
Tom was furious, but had no choice but to return home to Consett.
The significance of the Spanish Civil War to Tom, and the strong ideals
that he must have felt to go there and fight, indeed, his beliefs that it was
essential so to do, are highlighted in his criticism of the film For Whom
22

the johan van oldenbarneveldt
the Bell Tolls detailed in a letter to his sister, Ada, and his brother-in-law,
George, dated 5 December 1943 (Appendix 1).
Rene recalls his life after returning from Spain:
Tom at the age of 14 left school to go to Spain to fight. I don’t
know how he got there but there were plenty of left wing people
who would have helped him. He must have travelled with a group
of like-minded people. In Scotland and places like Durham, Tom
was in Durham at the time, there were plenty of people meeting
up to travel together. All over the country there were people
wanting to do the same, getting together to organise for the trip.
When he got to Spain they sent him home, telling him he was
too young.
Tom was born a communist I think. Not influenced directly
by his family, but by being born into a working-class family in a
mining area. It wasn’t difficult to think that way I suppose. Tom
really didn’t have the education he should have had, because he
scuttled away to Spain.
Between returning from Spain and the outbreak of the Second
World War Tom worked in a shop in Consett. His father had been
a village policeman in Cockfield and the surrounding area, and
when he retired he got a very posh semi-detached, bay-windowed
house at the end of a miners’ row in Consett. At that time, the
main source of employment had moved away from the pits to
the Iron Company. Tom worked in a grocery shop called Walter
Wilsons, learning how to wrap the bacon, and slice the cheese,
and everything else, until he enlisted into the RAF.
Tom also became active in politics, and had become a member of the
North-East section of the Communist Party (CP) of Great Britain. He was
involved in its organisation, but focussed on disseminating its ideas by
writing numerous articles.
World War Two gave Tom, like most young men of his age, the opportunity
not only to demonstrate their patriotism but also the opportunity to escape
the drudgery of life in a mining village and see more of the world. Having
tried to fight fascism in Spain, he was obviously not going to hesitate to do
so for his homeland.
23

merdeka
Tom joined the Royal Air Force (RAF) on 28 July 1941. After initial
training, he trained to be a Wireless Mechanic at Bolton Technical College. As
a sprog (a young, new, inexperienced airman), his first posting was, strangely
enough, to RAF Ouston near Newcastle-upon-Tyne, which was not too far
from his home of Consett. Tom had specialised in working on VHF (Very
High Frequency) radio and other equipment used in ground-to-aeroplane
communication. In addition, he had to learn to strip, repair, service, and put
back together various types of aeroplane.
Eventually, Tom found that working in the comfortable environment of
the Wireless Workshop had started to become boring. The war appeared to be
going on and he was nowhere near seeing any action. When the opportunity
came to volunteer for something new and exciting, he jumped at it.
By 1942, there were sufficient military and political leaders realising the
mistakes that Britain had made during the early years of the war, whence the
commanders were still very much entrenched in the tactics of the First World
War. Eventually, the lessons of the highly efficient German forces, and in
particular the tactics of the Blitzkrieg, were being learnt. One of these lessons
was the close co-operation between the various forces – the Army, Air Force,
and Navy – which was still an anathema to the individual services. The
response of the Air Force was to form the Servicing Commando Unit (SCU).
It was eventually realised that British Forces would have to invade
and occupy mainland Europe to win the war, and, hence, there was a
requirement to equip and service airfields near the battlefronts. Until this
time, the mechanics of the RAF were exactly that – they were trained to
service aircrafts and not as fighting troops. The German tactic of Blitzkrieg
had shown the huge advantage of air support for forward troops and, to
achieve this, runways had to be near the battle lines. Hence, the SCU was
formed to train elite mechanics to fight at a special operations level and
be near the vanguard of any invasion or major battle. Tom immediately
volunteered for the SCU and shortly after was posted to RAF Coltishall to
join the newly formed 3210 SC.
It was at Coltishall that Tom met Peter Humphries who was to become
his closest friend for the rest of the war and thereafter.
The initial training for Tom’s Unit took place at an RAF base just north of
the village of Zeals in Wiltshire. From opening in 1942 until August 1943,
Zeals was used as a base for Hawker Hurricane and Supermarine Spitfire
fighter planes. In August 1943, the base was transferred to the United States
Air Force.
24

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