| Charles Vyner Brooke | |
|---|---|
| Rajah of Sarawak | |
| Reign | 24 May 1917 – 1 July 1946 |
| Full name | Charles Vyner de Windt Brooke |
| Born | 30 September 1874 |
| Died | 9 May 1963 (aged 88) |
| Place of death | London, England |
| Buried | St Leonard's Church, Sheepstor on Dartmoor |
| Predecessor | Sir Charles Anthoni Johnson-Brooke |
| Successor | (Anthony Walter Dayrell Brooke: claim renounced) |
| Consort | Sylvia Brett |
| Royal House | White Rajahs |
| Father | Sir Charles Johnson-Brooke, Rajah of Sarawak |
| Mother | Margaret Alice Lili de Windt |
Vyner, Rajah of Sarawak, GCMG (Charles Vyner deWindt Brooke; 26 September 1874–9 May 1963) was the third and final White Rajah of Sarawak.[1]
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The son of Charles of Sarawak and his wife Margaret de Windt (Ranee Margaret of Sarawak), Vyner was born in London and spent his youth there, being educated at Clevedon, Winchester College, and Magdalene College, Cambridge.[2] He then entered the Sarawak public service.
Vyner served as aide-de-camp to his father 1897-1898, district officer of Simanggang 1898-1901, Resident of Mukah and Oya, 1902–1903, Resident of the Third Division 1903-1904, President of the Law Courts 1904-1911, Vice-President of the Supreme and General Councils 1904-1911.
In his military career he was 2nd Lieutenant 3rd County of London (Sharpshooters) Yeomanry (12 May 1911), resigning on 21 May 1913. During World War I he served incognito as a private in anti-aircraft defence and as a fitter in the aeroplane manufacturing works at Shoreditch, east London.
He was granted the personal style of His Highness by command of George V, 22 June 1911. It was in England that he met and married The Hon. Sylvia Brett, daughter of Lord Esher,[1] on 21 February 1911. They returned to Sarawak.
Following the death of his father, Vyner succeeded on 17 May and was proclaimed Rajah on 24 May 1917 at Kuching. He took the oath before the Council Negri on 22 July 1918. Vyner's early years as Rajah saw a boom in the Sarawak rubber and oil industries and the subsequent rise in the Sarawak economy allowed him to modernise the country's institutions, including the public service, and introduce a penal code developed on British India lines in 1924.
Granted a knighthood in 1927, Vyner continued to run a hands-off and relatively popular administration that banned Christian missionaries and fostered indigenous traditions (to an extent; headhunting was outlawed). Sarawak, however, was not immune to Japanese imperial ambition, which manifested itself in Sarawak on 25 December 1941. In that same year he withdrew £200,000 from the Treasury for his personal expenses, in exchange for limiting his powers by a new constitution.[3] Vyner and his family were visiting Sydney, Australia, where he would remain for the duration of the war.
The Daily Telegraph described him as "a cloud-living Old Wykehamist, ... one of the few monarchs left in the world who could still say l'Etat, c'est moi." Similarly, his Who's Who entry read thus: "Has led several expeditions into the far interior of the country to punish headhunters; understands the management of natives; rules over a population of 500,000 souls and a country" 40,000 square miles (100,000 km2) in extent.[4]
Vyner returned to Sarawak on 15 April 1946 and temporarily resumed as Rajah, until 1 July 1946 when he ceded Sarawak to the British government as a crown colony, thus ending White Rajah rule in Sarawak.
Vyner died in London at No. 13, Albion Street, Bayswater, W2 on 9 May 1963,[1] four months before Sarawak as well as Malaya, Sabah and Singapore joined together to form the Federation of Malaysia.
Vyner, his father, his brother Bertram, the Tuan Muda, and Rajah James, are buried in St Leonard's Church in the village of Sheepstor on Dartmoor.
He was survived by three daughters:
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Charles Vyner Brooke
Brooke family
Born: 26 September 1874 Died: 9 May 1963 |
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| Regnal titles | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Charles |
Rajah of Sarawak 1917-1946 |
Succeeded by None (Sarawak became a Crown colony) |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by Charles |
Head of government of Sarawak 1917-1946 |
Succeeded by Charles Noble Arden Clarke (as Governor of the the Colony of Sarawak) |
| Titles in pretence | ||
| Preceded by None |
— TITULAR — titular Rajah of Sarawak 1946-1963 |
Succeeded by Anthony Walter Dayrell Brooke (claim renounced) |