| Anthony Brooke | |
|---|---|
| H.H.Rajah Muda of Sarawak (titular) | |
| The Rajah Muda of Sarawak whilst at Eton. | |
| Spouse | Kathleen Mary Hudden (div.1965) Brigitte Keller (m.1982–2011) |
| Issue | |
| James Brooke Angela Brooke Celia Brooke |
|
| Father | Bertram Brooke |
| Born | 10 December 1912 |
| Died | 2 March 2011 (aged 98) Wanganui, New Zealand |
Anthony Walter Dayrell Brooke (10 December 1912 – 2 March 2011) was appointed His Highness the Rajah Muda of Sarawak (heir apparent; Malay: Yang Amat Mulia Tuan Rajah Muda Sarawak) on 25 August 1937, and succeeded to the title of Rajah in 1963 on the death of his uncle, Rajah Vyner of Sarawak the third and last of the ruling White Rajahs.
Brooke was the son of Bertram, Tuan Muda of Sarawak and Gladys Palmer, daughter of Sir Walter Palmer, and heiress to part of the Huntley & Palmers biscuit fortune.[1]
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Brooke grew up in England and was educated at Eton College, Trinity College, Cambridge and the School of African and Oriental Studies, University of London.[2] Throughout the 1930s he served the Sarawak civil service in various sectors, including the Land and Registry Department, and as a magistrate.[2]
He enlisted in the British Army as a private soldier in November 1941 and served during World War II; between 1941 and 1944 as a Lieutenant in the Intelligence Corps on the staff of the SAC SEAC at Kandy, Ceylon. He was Special Commissioner for Sarawak in the UK from 1944 to 1945.
Appointed Heir Apparent with the title of Rajah Muda of Sarawak on 25 August 1937, Brooke was granted the personal style of His Highness. Having been responsible for administering Sarawak between 1939 and 1940 in the absence of the Rajah, he was deprived of his styles and titles on 17 January 1940, then dismissed and expelled from the state in September 1941, following a dispute with his uncle, Rajah Vyner, over his marriage to a commoner, Kathleen Hudden, sister of a Sarawak government official.[1][3]
Brooke was restored as Rajah Muda after consultations between his uncle and father in 1944. He was, however, deprived of his titles again on 12 October 1945.[2]
Rajah Vyner ceded Sarawak to the British Colonial Office, in 1946 in exchange for a sizeable pension for him and his three daughters. Anthony Brooke, the designated heir, initially opposed cession to the Crown along with a majority of the native members of the Council Negri (Parliament). A five-year campaign in Sarawak followed, aimed at revoking the country's new colonial status, in part directed by Brooke from his house in Singapore.[1] In 1948, after the second British Governor of Sarawak, Duncan Stewart was assassinated by the Malay Sarawakian nationalist Rosli Dhobie, Brooke came under scrunity by MI5, the British intelligence agency, who wanted to "get wind of any other plots he and his associates might be hatching". No evidence was found that he had known of the assassination plot.[1]
In 1951, Brooke renounced any claim to the title, although he remained, according to some loyalists, the pretender to the throne.
Brooke was married firstly, in Rangoon, Burma to Kathleen Mary Hudden (1907–1981)[2], daughter of William Edward Cecil Hudden, of Backwell, Somerset, who became the Ranee Muda of Sarawak. They had three children:
Anthony Brooke lived for various periods in London, Sussex and at Findhorn community in Scotland. In 1982 he married secondly a fellow peace activist; Brigitte (Gita) Keller (born in 1931 in Copenhagen to the Reverend Paul H. Lange) founded Operation Peace Through Unity (OPTU) in Sweden in 1975.[2] From 1987 until Brooke's death in 2011 they lived together in Wanganui, New Zealand. Brooke was a traveller and lecturer, supporting various movements for peace and universal understanding.
Brooke died at his home in Wanganui on 2 March 2011, at the age of 98. His death coincided with the anniversary of the deaths of two of the four members of the Sarawak Anti-Cession Movement, Rosli Dhoby and Awang Ramli Amit, who were hanged at Kuching Central Prison on 2 March 1950, while the two others, Bujang Suntong and Morshidi Sidek, were hanged on 27 March.
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Anthony Walter Dayrell Brooke
Brooke family
Born: 10 December 1912 Died: 2 March 2011 |
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| Preceded by Bertram Brooke |
Heir to the Sarawakian throne 25 August 1937 – 9 May 1963 |
Succeeded by James Brooke |
| Titles in pretence | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Vyner Brooke |
— TITULAR — titular white Rajah of Sarawak (claim renounced) 9 May 1963 – 2 March 2011 Reason for succession failure: Title abolished in 1946 |
Succeeded by James Brooke |