George Cathcart Woolley

GC Woolley, 1903

Woolley's Diary No. 2

Woolley's gravestone in the old Anglican cemetery in Kota Kinabalu

Woolley's handwritten entry in his diary no. 2

Photo album number 13

George Cathcart Woolley (born December 24, 1876 in Tyn-y-Celyn, Ruthin , England , † December 6, 1947 in Jesselton , Sabah ) was a British administrative officer in British North Borneo , today's Sabah. He served within the North Borneo Chartered Company and rose to be a resident. Woolley was also an ethnographer and a passionate collector. Woolley's collection of photographs, diaries and other artifacts bequeathed to the state of Sabah formed the core of the Sabah Museum, founded in 1965 .

Life

Woolley was born on December 24, 1876 in Tyn-y-Celyn in North Wales. He was the son of a clergyman, Rev. George Herbert Woolley, curate at St Matthew's, Upper Clapton, Hackney , London, and his wife, Sarah Woolley. He had seven sisters and three brothers, including the later famous archaeologist Sir Leonard Woolley and Rev. Geoffrey Harold Woolley, who was awarded the Victoria Cross as the first officer in the British Volunteer Army . Woolley went to Merchant Taylors' School and Queens College , where he received his PhD in 1899.

In 1901 he got a job in the Land Registry (Land Office) of the North Borneo Chartered Company ; initially based in Labuan , then over the years in various places in North Borneo. His duties as a Land Commissioner included extensive trips through northern Borneo for the purpose of surveying and settling land disputes. During these trips he developed a keen interest in the indigenous people of Sabah and their customs, especially the inland Murut . Throughout his life he amassed an abundance of artifacts, including an extensive collection of native and Malay kris weapons . He bequeathed some of these weapons to the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford , from where some were later returned to the Sabah Museum.

His tenure as District Officer of Jesselton and Beaufort and later as Resident of the Interior Division gave him further insight into local customs and traditions.

In the 1930s, Woolley was entrusted by the North Borneo government with an investigation into the population loss of indigenous people, particularly the Murut and Kadazhan, to find out how this trend could be stopped.

In 1932 he retired and returned to England. However, in 1934 he decided to return to North Borneo. In 1940 he was awarded the North Borneo General Service Medal . In the period between his retirement and the Japanese occupation of Sabah, he wrote many articles on the traditional customs of Sabah (adat) . These articles are of particular importance due to the fact that these adats were written down in a formalized version for the first time and could later serve as a standard reference for tribes. In 1941 he returned to the government's service as Acting Protector of Labor and Secretary for Chinese Affairs .

From 1942 to September 1945 Woolley was interned with other European civilians in the Japanese internment camp Batu Lintang Camp near Kuching , Sarawak . Despite his advanced age, Woolley had to endure severe flogging and mistreatment there, including imprisonment with rice and water for 30 days. However, when the guards who mistreated him stood on trial as war criminals after the war, Woolley refused to testify against his tormentors on the grounds that it only caused persistent bitterness among the people. After the war he lived in England for a short time, but returned to North Borneo in March 1947. He died on December 6, 1947 and was buried in the old Anglican cemetery in Jesselton .

legacy

Woolley's collection formed the basis of the Sabah Museum when it opened in the 1960s. Together with the artifacts he had collected from the indigenous tribes, it comprised his writings and documents as well as a huge collection of photographs. Woolley left 2,843 photos in 17 albums that he took while serving in North Borneo. There were also 1,797 photo plates from the period between 1909 and 1920. The photographs mainly show the different indigenous tribes of North Borneo, city scenes and European officials. Woolley's diaries begin when he arrives in Sabah in 1901 and end in 1926.

The Sabah State Library's room reserved for regional history materials is named Woolley Collections Room in his honor.

An exhibition of photographs by Woolley was held from February 2-7, 2009 at the Sabah Museum.

Publications

• 1922 Introduction to NB Baboneau's “A Murut vocabulary”. Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society ( JSBRAS ) 86: 343-375
• 1922 "Transmigration" British North Borneo Herald ( BNBH ) (16 December 1922): 208-209
• 1923 "Batu Laing" BNBH 41 (1): 6
• 1923 "Batu Punggul, Sapulut and Batu Kinadut, Pendewan." BNBH 41 (2): 11-12
• 1923 "Bukit Malinggai" BNBH 41 (5): 47-48
• 1923 "The Dusuns of British North Borneo" BNBH 41 (9): 83-84.
• 1923 "Fire" BNBH 41 (3): 25.
• 1923 "The Saluidan rapids on the Sook River" BNBH 41 (4): 38.
• 1923 "The story of Kohlong and his wife Puok" BNBH 41 (6): 56.
• 1923 "The story of Lalangau, the giant" BNBH 41 (7): 66-67.
• 1927 "Mentugi, a Murut ordeal" BNBH 45 (19): 179-180.
• 1927 "Two Murut pantuns from the Dalit District, Keningau, British North Borneo" Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society ( JMBRAS ) 5 (2): 366-369.
• 1928 "Murut folktales" Folklore 29: 253-271, 359-381.
• 1928 "Murut songs" BNBH 46 (9): 78-79.
• 1929 "Some notes on Murut basket work and patterns" JMBRAS 7 (2): 291-315.
• 1932 "Dusun custom in Putatan District" Native Affairs Bulletin ( NAB ) 7. (Reprint 1962.)
• 1932 "Murut basketwork" JMBRAS 10 (1): 23-29.
• 1936 "Some Murut hunting customs" JMBRAS 14 (3): 307-313.
• 1936 "The Timoguns: A Murut tribe of the interior, North Borneo" NAB 1. (Reprint 1962.)
• 1937 A Dusun vocabulary in the dialect of the District of Tambunan, North Borneo Jesselton: Government Printing Office.
• 1937 "Murut customs: Human sacrifice and slavery amongst the Nabai Tribe, Keningau" BNBH 55 (20): 236-367.
• 1937 "Tuaran adat: Some customs of the Dusuns of Tuaran, West Coast Residency, North Borneo" NAB 2. (Reprint 1953.)
• 1938 "Mr. FX Witti's last journey and death" Bulletin of the North Borneo State Museum , No. 1. (Reprint in Sabah Society Journal ( SSJ ) 5: 227-262, 1971.)
• 1938 "Keris Measurements" JMBRAS
• 1938 "Origin of the Keris" JMBRAS
• 1938 "A New Book on the Keris" JMBRAS
• 1939 "Dusun Adat: Some Customs of the Dusuns of Tambunan and Ranau. West Coast Residency"
• 1939 "Kwijau adat: Customs regulating inheritance amongst the Kwijau tribe of the interior" NAB 6. (Reprint 1953.)
• 1939 "Murut adat: Customs regulating inheritance amongst the Nabai tribe of Keningau, and the Timogun tribe of Tenom" NAB 3. (Reprint 1953)
• 1947 "A Murut fairy tale" JMBRAS 20 (1): 145-152.
• 1947 "The Malay Keris: Its Origin and Development" JMBRAS 20 (2)
• 1947 "Notes on Two Knives in the Pitt Rivers Museum" JMBRAS 20 (2)
• 1953 Adat Tuaran: Sebahagian dari adat Orang-Orang Dusun di Daerah Tuaran Pantai Barat, Borneo Utara. Jesselton: Pejabat Chap Kerajaan (Reprint of Tuaran adat , written in Malay, translated into English in 1937.)
• 1953 "Dusun adat: Customs regulating inheritance amongst the Dusun tribes in the coastal plains of Putatan and Papar" NAB 4.
• 1953 "Dusun adat: Some customs of the Dusuns of Tambunan and Ranau, West Coast Residency, North Borneo" NAB 5.
• 1962 Adat bagi mengatorkan hak waris di-antara suku Kwijau di-Pendalaman. Buku berkenaan dengan hal ahwal Anak Negeri, bilangan 6 Jesselton: Government Printing Office. (in Malay language). For the English version, see Woolley, GC, 1939 (Reprint 1953), "Kwijau adat: Customs regulating inheritance amongst the Kwijau tribe of the interior".
• 1962 A dat Dusun di-Tambunan dan Ranau. Buku berkenaan dengan hal ahwal Anak Negeri, bilangan 5 Jesselton: Government Printing Office. (in Malay language)
• 1962 Murut adat: Customs regulating inheritance amongst the Nabai tribe of Keningau, and the Timugon tribe of Tenom. Buku berkenaan dengan hal ahwal Anak Negeri Jesselton: Government Printing Office. (in Malay language)
• 1962 "The Timoguns: A Murut tribe of the interior, North Borneo" NAB 1. (Reprint of the first edition from 1935.)
• 2004 The Timogun Muruts of Sabah Kota Kinabalu Natural History Publications (Borneo)
• 2007 Tuaran Adat: Some Customs of the Dusuns of Tuaran, West Coast Residency, North Borneo Kota Kinabalu Natural History Publications (Borneo)

literature

• Danny Wong Tze Ken: Woolley and the Codification of native customs in Sabah (PDF; 174 kB) in: New Zealand Journal of Asian Studies 11, 1 (June 2009): Pages 87-105.
• Ken, Danny Wong Tze & Moo Tan, Stella: The Diaries of GC Woolley, Volume One: 1901-1907 . Sabah State Museum, 2015. ISBN 978-983-9638-31-8
• Ken, Danny Wong Tze & Moo Tan, Stella: The Diaries of GC Woolley, Volume Two: 1907-1913 . Sabah State Museum, 2016. ISBN 978-983-9638-32-5

Individual evidence

1. ^ Sabah Museum: Our History ; Accessed September 14, 2012
2. ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original from May 27, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
3. ↑ http://www.borneo-online.com.my/museum.htm
4. ^ Wrexham Advertiser, December 30, 1876, p. 4, Births section
5. ↑ Biographical Appendix in Bornean Diaries 1938-1942: IHN Evans , ed. AVM Horton, Borneo Research Council Monograph Series No 6
6. ↑ Michael P. O'Connor, 1954, The More Fool I , 186
7. ↑ Biographical Appendix in Bornean Diaries 1938-1942: IHN Evans , ed. AVM Horton, Borneo Research Council Monograph Series No 6
8. ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original from May 27, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.