Quartermaster's Cap for a Volunteer Hunter of the 1st Battalion of the University of Leiden, Belonging to L.J.W. Beeckman

Garrison cap of L.J.W. Beeckman (1812-1831). Cloth, leather and silk, 1831. When William I called for volunteers to take part in the struggle against the rebellious Belgians, the 19-year-old Leiden theology student Lodewijk Beeckman enrolled immediately. He entered the 'Leiden Hunters', a volunteer student corps. A month later, the 248 Leiden Hunters (around a third of all Leiden students) left for Belgium. Three were never to return alive. Beeckman died on 5 August 1831 during the Ten Days' Campaign. A bullet struck him in the head near the Flemish village of Beringen. The cap he was wearing was preserved as a relic. The Leiden volunteers were fêted as heroes when they returned in September 1831. A memorial was erected for Beeckman in St Peter's church in Leiden in 1832.