Bumrung Kollasutr, the son of the colonel, standing by the original tombstone (no later than 1966).
an impressive moustache and with penetrating ice blue eyes that his gendarmes didn’t dare to meet. But in fact it started in the village of Pedersborg by Soroe the 23. July 1867. Here Maria Dorthea Wendt, married to farmer C.A.F. Kolls, brought a son to the world. He was baptized August Theodor Frederic but soon thereafter adopted by steam miller Kolls (his uncle we suppose) in Tappernoeje. Next we meet him as Second-lieutenant 1888. He arrived in Bangkok on 16 January 1890, where he was immediately promoted to Premier-Lieutenant. For years he worked in the army and in the Marine-infantry as instructor and a heavy handed drillmaster, feared by his soldiers. When the gendarmerie was founded he was hired and for many years headed the Gendarmerie station in Nakhon Ratchasima (Korat), where he, among other duties, trained and instructed the enrolled Danish officers. On16 October 1902, it was also his sad duty, as the liaison officer, to forward the detailed Death Certificate of Captain Hans Marqvard Jensen to the acting Danish Consul in Bangkok. Meanwhile, the most important task was to make the mountainous route from the southern plains to
the plateau of Korat safe for the merchants and their caravans. The mountains were in the hands of gangs relieving all travelers of their belongings. Kolls traced them down, he himself in front, an extremely easy target as he was. In a year or so he simply cleansed the mountains out, many dead and wounded on both sides. It was on such an expedition he learned that Ai Muang was that night sleeping with a mistress in a certain house – a traditional house, on piles. Kolls banged the floor from underneath and called for Ai Muang to come down and meet him. Ai Muang did, undoubtedly knowing that he had ran out of luck and life.
physical challenges he gave himself; extensive travelling in the jungle, drinking raw water and so on. He had more dysentery bouts. He was admitted to the Presbyterian Mission Hospital late June 2011 with yet another attack of dysentery. From that he died on 4 July 1911. He left a Siamese wife and two young sons, one of them being Charoen Kollasutr, who lived for many years in Chiang Mai. In Kolls’ family it has been a part
of the family saga for generations to tell that when King Rama VI heard about Kolls’ death he should have exclaimed with a sigh: “Now I have lost my right arm in the South”. On the memorial in Trang we read: ‘By the Gracious command of His Majesty the King of Siam this stone is erected in recognition of long and faithful services to the memory of Lieut. Col. Kolls born in Denmark 23rd July 1867 died in Trang 4th July 1911’.
*Google: ‘Gendarmer I Hobro’ (Henrik. S. Hansen) Literature: Rasmussen, A. Kann (1986): Danske i Siam 1858-1942. Seidenfaden, Erik v/Peder Joergensen (1999): ’ Det kongelige Siamesiske Provinsgendarmeri og dets danske Officerer’.
In the South Then, in 1908 August Kolls was transferred to the South, in 1909 promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel. Also here he found the ordinary robbers and highwaymen, but also some very disgusting elements among the public officials in the Southern provinces. When he exposed these people’s doings, they of course became his sworn enemies. It seems that the Colonel simply did what he found it right or necessary to do, without thinking much of the consequences or personal protection. That also goes for the
The memorial as it looked 2012 before renovating started. The original stone was later embedded in the memorial, as can be seen. December 2012 • ScandAsia.Thailand 41