Education
Spoor was educated at a secondary school in The Hague, the cadet school in Alkmaar and the Royal Military Academy in Breda. From 1929 to 1932 he studied at the Higher War College in The Hague.
Spoor was educated at a secondary school in The Hague, the cadet school in Alkmaar and the Royal Military Academy in Breda. From 1929 to 1932 he studied at the Higher War College in The Hague.
In 1923 he was appointed as second lieutenant of infantry and was seconded to the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army from 1924 in Dutch Borneo. In 1938, Spoor returned to the Dutch East Indies, as Head of the Political Affairs Department of the General Staff and the Higher War College in Bandung. He taught Laws of war and East Indies Martial law.
He was also an employee of the military "Javabode".
In March 1942 Spoor belonged to the select group of senior officials and military staff who after the capitulation of the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army high command in Java to the Japanese Imperial Army emigrated to Australia. He was charged with building the Netherlands Forces Intelligence Service (NEFIS).
He became a staff member to the American General Douglas MacArthur during the New Guinea campaign and was also present at the invasion with General MacArthur. By Royal Decree of 19 January 1946, the then 44-year-old Colonel Spoor was appointed army commander in the Dutch East Indies with the temporary rank of lieutenant general.
On January 31, he took over the command of Lieutenant General L H van Oyen.
Operationally the army commander functioned in the Dutch East Indies, until autumn 1946, under the Allied South-East Asia Command (SEAC) (under Mountbatten), such that only small numbers of Dutch troops were allowed in Java. From September 1946 the integration of the Dutch troops coming from the Netherlands into the KNIl troops required a large and cumbersome organization. He led the two large Dutch military offensives into Java against Indonesian Republican positions.
Operation Product and Operation Kraai.
General Spoor died unexpectedly on 25 May 1949. He was buried on 28 May 1949 in the Menteng Pulo cemetery in (Jakarta), among "his men".
Some critics say he was poisoned, the Dutch historian Jaap de Moor explains in hist biography about General Spoor that he was just an "overworked man". 31-07-1923 2nd Lieutenant 31-07-1926 1st Lieutenant 23-11-1934 Captain 27-05-1943 Major 10-01-1944 Lieutenant-Colonel 17-02-1945 Colonel 19-01-1946 Major General (temporary General-Major, also Army Commander) 02-09-1946 Lieutenant General 23-05-1949 General.