Pangeran Adipati Soejono

Pangeran Raden Adipati Ario Soejono (31 March 1886 – 5 January 1943) was a Javanese-Dutch civil servant and politician, who briefly served as minister without portfolio in the Dutch government-in-exile from 1942 until his death in 1943. He is recognised as the only Indonesian person and first Muslim to have held a ministerial position in the cabinet of the Netherlands.

Early life and education Soejono was born on 31 March 1886 in Tulungagung, East Java into a Javanese regent family. His father was a , or district head. He did not return to the Volksraad after the 1921 election, in which he ran as a candidate for the conservative liberal Freethinkers League (NIVB). However, he rejoined the body on 15 September 1922 when he was appointed to fill a mid-term vacancy. Soejono subsequently secured re-election in the 1924, 1927 and 1931 elections, and also served as a member of the assembly's College of Delegates.

In 1930, Soejono was sent on a one-year study assignment to the Netherlands. During his stay in Europe, he joined the Netherlands' delegation to the International Labour Organization conference in Geneva, representing the Dutch East Indies in negotiations on the abolition of forced labour. In November 1934, Soejono left the Volksraad and relocated to The Hague, where he was appointed to serve on the International Rubber Regulation Committee on behalf of the Ministry of the Colonies.

Advisory roles and appointment as minister In early 1940, Soejono returned to Java and succeeded Hoesein Djajadiningrat as a member of the Council of the Dutch East Indies. When Van Mook was appointed as Minister of the Colonies in the exiled second Gerbrandy cabinet in London, Soejono served as his senior adviser. The couple had four children. He was buried at the Muslim Burial Ground in Woking, in attendance of government representatives and Indonesian personnel of the Royal Netherlands Navy.

His eldest son, (24 January 1920 – 13 January 1945), served in the Dutch resistance and was killed by German troops in 1945.

Honours Titles

Raden Toemenggoeng (1915–1922) Raden Toemenggoeng Ario (1922–1925) Raden Adipati Ario (since 1925) Pangeran (since October 1942), granted by Queen Wilhelmina for meritorious service to the Kingdom

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