Charles Johnson Brooke

Charles Johnson Brooke

Charles Anthoni Johnson Brooke, painting by Leslie Ward, 1899

Sir Charles Anthoni Johnson Brooke (born June 3, 1829 in Berrow , Somerset , † May 7, 1917 in Cirencester , Gloucestershire ) was the second of the White Rajas of Sarawak on Borneo .

Life

Charles was born in Somerset as Charles Anthoni Johnson , son of Francis Charles and Emma Frances Johnson, younger sister of James Brooke , and thus the nephew of the first White Raja of Sarawak. Since his uncle James Brooke remained childless, he initially named Charles' brother as his successor as King of Sarawak . James Brooke, however, later revised his opinion, so that from 1865 Charles Anthoni Johnson was appointed as Charles Johnson Brooke as his successor. After his uncle's death (1868), he became the second White Raja to rule Sarawak.

Brooke continued the work of his uncle and continued to fight against piracy and head hunting the Iban . At the same time he encouraged trade and increased the power of the white Rajas . Sarawak's vast forest area and oil reserves were the personal property of the Brooke family . On October 28, 1869, he married Margaret Alice Lili de Windt, the Rani . Fort Margherita in the capital Kuching was named after his wife . The two had six children:

• Dayang Ghita Brooke (1870–1873)
• James Harry Brooke (1872–1873)
• Charles Clayton Brooke (1872–1873)
• Charles Vyner Brooke (1874–1963)
• Bertram, Tuan Muda (1876–1965)
• Harry Keppel Brooke, Tuan Bongsu (1879–1926)

On June 2, 1888, Queen Victoria raised him to the knighthood as Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George , which is why he henceforth carried the suffix "Sir".

With his death (1917), the country of Sarawak became the protectorate of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland . His son and successor, Charles Vyner Brooke, the third white Raja, was expelled by the Japanese Army in World War II in 1942 and returned to Sarawak in 1945. The rule of the white Rajas of Borneo ended in 1946 when Charles Vyner Brooke handed over control of Sarawak to the British. Sarawak later became part of the Malaysia Federation.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Knights and Dames: BED-BUG at Leigh Rayment's Peerage

literature

• Nigel Barley : White Rajah. A biography of Sir James Brooke. Little, Brown & Co., London 2002, ISBN 0-316-85920-6 .
• Muzaffar DJ Tate: Rajah Brooke's Borneo. The Nineteenth Century World of Pirates and Head-Hunters, Orang Utan and Hornbills, and other such Rarities as seen through the Illustrated London News and other contemporary Sources. Falcon Press, Damansara Jaya 1997, ISBN 983-9672-23-1 .
• John H. Walker: Power and Prowess. The origins of Brooke kingship in Sarawak. Allen & Unwin, Crows Nest, NSW Australia 2002, ISBN 0-8248-2500-4 .
• Cassandra Pybus: The White Rajahs of Sarawak - Dynastic Intrigue and the Forgotten Canadian Heir , 1996, Douglas & McIntyre, Vancouver / Toronto, ISBN 1-55054-603-1

predecessor	Office	successor
James Brooke	Raja of Sarawak 1868–1917	Charles Vyner Brooke