Matthiam Johannes le Roux

Matthiam Johannes was baptized March 6, 1774, in Cape Town. By his own account, he was born March 1, 1775 (sic!), son of Matiam Johan le Roux and Petronella Lever (KNIL record, 25th Bat. Inf.). In 1791, he entered the service of the VOC as a cadet, in Colombo. Promoted to lieutenant in 1793. Captured in 1795 when Ceylon was taken over by the British. After the defeat of Napoleon, the Netherlands became independent again of France and the British returned many of the original colonies to the Dutch (but not Ceylon), through the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of August 13, 1814 (also known as the Convention of London).

The Dutch assembled a force of about 1500 persons, to take back control of the Dutch East Indies from the British. On October 29, 1815, the troops departed on a fleet of 7 ships, sailing from the island of Texel. Among the troops was the 25th battallion infantry, of which Matthiam was in charge of as lieutenant-colonel, since October 2, 1814. This battallion was on board the ship Braband. Unfortunately, upon departure, the Braband and another ship hit ground on the shallows of the coast of Texel. Both ships were able to continue, but had to anchor in Portsmouth to assess and repair the damage. For the Braband the damage was considered to be too severe for a journey on the high seas. The troops had to wait for a year for the replacement vessel to arrive, the prins Frederik.

On October 16, 1816, the journey to the Dutch East Indies finally continued, and the the prins Frederik arrived at Batavia on May 1, 1817, after a month long stopover at Cape Town, in February. Note that two of Matthias's sons also were member of the 25th battallion infantry, as cadets: Willem Ferdinand and Johan Carel Justiien.

In 1818, Matthias was promoted to 2nd colonel, and became a member of the high military court in Batavia. A year later, he was promoted to colonel, and was appointed as military commander of Weltevreden in 1819. He retired January 25, 1824. After his wife died in 1826, he left for the Netherlands and took up residence in The Hague. There, he married again on April 16, 1828.