Charles_Brooke,_Rajah_of_Sarawak

Charles Brooke, Rajah of Sarawak

Charles Brooke, Rajah of Sarawak

Rajah of Sarawak

Sir Charles Brooke, Rajah of Sarawak, GCMG (Charles Anthoni Johnson Brooke; 3 June 1829 – 17 May 1917), born Charles Anthoni Johnson, ruled as the head of state of Raj of Sarawak from 3 August 1868 until his death. He succeeded his uncle, James Brooke, as the second White Rajah.

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Rajah Charles as depicted on a one cent coin

Biography

Charles Anthoni Johnson, was born in Berrow Vicarage, Burnham, Somerset, in England, to the Rev. Francis Charles and Emma Frances Johnson, née Brooke. Emma was the younger sister of James Brooke, the first Rajah of Sarawak. In addition to Charles, Francis and Emma had other children: Captain John Brooke Johnson (1823–1868) (later Brooke Brooke), Mary Anna Johnson (b. 1824), Harriet Helena Johnson (b. 1826), Charlotte Frances Johnson (b. 1828), Captain (William) Frederic Johnson (b. 1830), Emma Lucy Johnson (b. 1832), Margaret Henrietta Johnson (1834–1845), Georgianna Brooke Johnson (1836–1854), James Stuart Johnson (1839–1840), and Henry Stuart Johnson (b. 1841).

Brooke was educated at Crewkerne Grammar School and entered the Royal Navy. He entered the service of his uncle James, the first Rajah of Sarawak, in 1852, took his name, and began as Resident at the Lundu station in the Raj of Sarawak. In the 1857 rebellion against the White Rajah James Brooke, Charles Brooke helped his uncle James put down the rebellion led by Liu Shan Bang with his force composed of Ibans and local Bidayuh tribes. It is noted that Brooke's Iban forces pursued the remaining rebels to Bau, where they slaughtered the 3,000 villagers including women, children and old folks in a massacre. In 1865, James named Charles as his successor.

Brooke married Margaret Alice Lili de Windt at Highworth, Wiltshire, on 28 October 1869; she was raised to the title of Ranee of Sarawak with the style of Her Highness on the same day. They had six children, three of whom survived infancy:

Brooke’s son Charles Vyner Brooke succeeded him as Rajah. He had another son, Esca Brooke (1868–1951), the result of a previous marriage with a Malay woman known as Dayang Mastiah. Esca was later adopted by the Rev. William Daykin, moved to Canada, and took the name Brooke-Daykin.[3] Brooke lost an eye at some point in a riding accident, and allegedly replaced it with a false eye intended for a stuffed albatross.[4]

Brooke resigned his commission in the Royal Navy in 1861[1] and continued the work his uncle had started, suppressing piracy, slavery, and head-hunting,[1] while encouraging trade and development and expanding the borders of his domain as the opportunity arose. In 1891 he established the Sarawak Museum, the first museum in Borneo. Brooke founded a boys' school in 1903, called the 'Government Lay School', where Malays could be taught in the Malay language. This was the forerunner of SMK Green Road.[5] By the time of his death, Britain had established a protectorate over Sarawak, it had parliamentary government and a railway, and oil had been discovered.

All three White Rajahs are buried in St Leonard's Church in the village of Sheepstor on Dartmoor.

Honours

British Honours

At least two Bornean species were named in Brooke's honour:

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Charles Brooke, Rajah of Sarawak.

References

  1. [1]
    "Obituaries -- Sir Charles Brooke". The Sun. New York, NY. 18 May 1917. Retrieved 13 June 2015.
  2. [2]
    Sir Charles Anthony Johnson-Brooke. The Peerage
  3. [3]
    'The White Rajahs of Sarawak - Dynastic Intrigue and the Forgotten Canadian Heir' by historian Cassandra Pybus, 1996, Douglas & McIntyre, Vancouver/Toronto, ISBN 1-55054-603-1
  4. [4]
    Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2009). The Eponym Dictionary of Mammals. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 978-0-8018-9304-9.
  5. [5]
    Gin, Ooi Keat (1997). "The Attitudes of the Brookes Towards Education in Sarawak 1841-1941". Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. 70 (2): 53–67. JSTOR 41493337.
  6. [6]
    "The London Gazette". No. 25825. 8 June 1888. p. 3185. Retrieved 22 April 2022.
  7. [7]
    "Description of a new deer from Mount Dulit, Eastern Sarawak". Annals and Magazine of Natural History.

Further reading

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