Charles Vyner Brooke

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Vyner Brooke
Rajah of Sarawak
Reign24 May 1917 – 1 July 1946 (3rd Rajah)
PredecessorCharles Brooke
SuccessorMonarchy abolished
Charles Arden-Clarke
Governor of Sarawak
Born(1874-09-26)26 September 1874
Died9 May 1963(1963-05-09) (aged 88)
Westminster, London, England, United Kingdom
Burial
St Leonard's Church, Sheepstor on Dartmoor
SpouseSylvia Brett
IssueLeonora Margaret Brooke
Elizabeth Brooke
Nancy Valerie Brooke
Names
Charles Vyner de Windt Brooke
HouseWhite Rajahs
FatherCharles Brooke
MotherMargaret Brooke

Sir Vyner Brooke, Rajah of Sarawak, GCMG, full name Charles Vyner de Windt Brooke (26 September 1874 – 9 May 1963) was the third and last White Rajah of the Raj of Sarawak.[1]

Early life

The son of

Charles Brooke 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

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 commissioned as a Second Lieutenant into the

First World War he served incognito as a rating in a naval anti-aircraft defence unit,[3] and as a fitter in an aeroplane manufacturing works at Shoreditch
, East London.

He was granted the personal style of

Lord Esher,[1]
on 21 February 1911. They returned to Sarawak.

Rajah of Sarawak

Following the death of his father, Vyner succeeded on 17 May and was proclaimed

British India
lines in 1924.

Granted a knighthood in 1927,

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.[5] Vyner and his family were visiting Sydney, where he would remain for the duration of the war. [citation needed
]

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.[6]

Abdication and later life

Blue plaque on his former house in Albion Street, London.

Vyner returned to Sarawak on 15 April 1946 and temporarily resumed power 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, North Borneo and Singapore joined to form the Federation of Malaysia on 16 September 1963.

His nephew,

Rajah Muda
(crown prince) of Sarawak, because Vyner had three daughters but no son. Anthony opposed cession to Britain, as did a majority of the native members of the Council Negri (Parliament), and they campaigned against it for five years.

The anti-cession movement came to a head in 1948 when the second British governor to Sarawak,

Duncan Stewart, was assassinated by a young nationalist named Rosli Dhobi in Sibu. Suspicion fell on Anthony for orchestrating the killing but declassified documents from the British National Archive later showed that he had no connection to the plot. In 1951, Anthony finally renounced his claim to Sarawak's throne and lived out the later part of his life in New Zealand where he died at the age of 98 on 2 March 2011.[7]

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.

Family

He was survived by three daughters, whose names could be preceded by the Malay honorific of Dayang (Lady):

  • Leonora Margaret, Countess of Inchcape, wife of the 2nd Earl of Inchcape (one son, Lord Tanlaw, and one daughter) and, subsequently after his death, of US Colonel Francis Parker Tompkins (one son).
  • Elizabeth, a
    RADA-educated singer and actress, wife of firstly Harry Roy (one son and one daughter), and secondly, Richard Vidmer until her death.[8]
  • Nancy Valerie, an actress, known for The Charge of the Light Brigade,[9] wife of firstly, Robert Gregory, an American wrestler; secondly, José Pepi Cabarro – a Spanish businessman; thirdly, Andrew Aitken Macnair (one son, Stewart, born 1952); and fourthly, Memery Whyatt. She died in Florida.[1]

Legacy

The ship SS Vyner Brooke was named after him.

A species of lizard endemic to Sarawak, Dasia vyneri, is named in his honor.[10]

References

  1. ^ a b c d "Person Page". Thepeerage.com. Retrieved 30 December 2017.
  2. ^ "Brooke, Charles Vyner (BRK894CV)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
  3. Lives of the First World War
  4. ^ "The London Gazette". No. 33280. 3 June 1927. p. 3606. Retrieved 22 April 2022.
  5. ^ "Kucing Berjanggut". Sarawakdotcom.blogspot.com. Retrieved 30 December 2017. [unreliable source?]
  6. ^ "The girl who would be queen", The Daily Telegraph, 2 June 2007.
  7. ^ "Farewell to the Crown Prince". Theborneopost.com. 21 September 2013. Retrieved 30 December 2017.
  8. ^ Princess Pearl (aka Elizabeth Vyner Brooke) – Internet Movie Database
  9. ^ Princess Baba, at IMDB
  10. ISBN 978-1-4214-0135-5
    . ("Vyner", p. 277).
Charles Vyner Brooke
Brooke family
Born: 26 September 1874 Died: 9 May 1963
Regnal titles
Preceded by Rajah of Sarawak
1917–1946 		Monarchy abolished
Head of Government of Sarawak
1917–1946 		Succeeded byas Governor of Sarawak
Titles in pretence
Loss of title
Monarchy abolished
 — TITULAR —
Rajah of Sarawak
1946–1963 		Succeeded by
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