The Brooke Heritage Trust - Sarawak Photographic Album

The modern history of Sarawak, a small Malaysian state on the island of Borneo could have been dreamt up by a very imaginative script writer from Hollywood; in particular a scriptwriter that wrote exotic adventure movies!

James, Rajah of Sarawak

Rajah Muda Hashim  

This modern history began in 1839 when James Brooke arrived in Sarawak. Brooke was born in 1803 in India and was an army officer of the British East India Company. Upon his father’s death, James used his inheritance to purchase a schooner, the Royalist, and sailed for Sarawak. There he met with Rajah Muda Hashim, who was governing the region on behalf of his nephew, Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddin II of Brunei. In 1840, Rajah Muda Hashim requested Brooke’s help to defeat a Dayak revolt in Kuching, promising in return the sovereignty of Sarawak. With his powerful cannons and superior military tactics, Brooke was able to quell the rebellion. In 1841 in reward for his success Brooke was appointed the first White Rajah of Sarawak in exchange for a small annual payment to the Sultan of Brunei. As the newly-appointed Rajah, Brooke took charge of what amounted to 3,000 square miles of swamp, jungle and river, much of it populated by the Dayaks. Brooke ruled Sarawak until his death in 1868.

Before his death in 1868 he nominated as heir his nephew Charles Johnson (his sister’s son) a former sailor who changed his surname to Brooke upon becoming Rajah. Charles despite been a very eccentric man at home, was to become a much-loved ruler. Charles extended the boundaries of the land under his control into the interior until it was the size of England, abolished slavery and built road, waterworks and even a railway. Apparently he even encouraged his British officers to take native women as lovers.

Charles was the ruler of Sarawak for fifty years and was succeeded by his son Charles Vyner in 1917.  During the reign of Charles Vyner Brooke Sarawak’s economy continued to prosper as rubber and oil production boomed. The rise in the economy enabled Charles Vyner to modernize the public service and other institutions. Brooke’s government was popular with the people and he continued to keep Christian missionaries out and foster most local traditions with the exception of head-hunting

In the 1940’s it became apparent that the Japanese Empire had ambition on the region. Sir Charles Vyner evacuated himself and family to Australia and this was just as well, because on December 25th, 1941 the Japanese invaded. The Rajah remained in exile in Sydney for the duration of the war. Eventually Australian troops liberated Sarawak in September of 1945 and Sir Charles Vyner returned to Kuching in April 1946. Unfortunately his tenure as Rajah was near to the end, and he ceded Sarawak to Britain as a crown colony in July 1941. This was strenuously rejected by the people of Sarawak through their native representatives on the Council Negri, and by the heir apparent Rajah Muda Anthony Brooke, who continued to fight for Independence against British Annexation up until 1951, when he finally withdrew.

Charles Vyner and his family returned to England with their three daughters to reside in London. Here Sir Charles Vyner died in 1963. He was buried with the other Rajahs of Sarawak at Sheepstor churchyard.  Rajah Muda Anthony died in 2011 and is buried beside the Rajahs at Sheepstor.
Sarawak was officially granted independence on 22 July 1963, and joined with Malaya, Sabah, and Singapore, in the federation of Malaysia 

The Brooke Heritage Trust is dedicated to the preservation of the heritage of Sarawak and was founded by the Brooke family. The Trust is a non-profit charitable trust dedicated to the heritage of Sarawak. The Trust maintains a large collection of documents, images and artefacts relating to the history of Sarawak and makes this collection publicly available at the Pustaka Negeri State Library in Kuching, Sarawak.
Max Communications was commissioned to digitise a photographic album of the country and people of Sarawak on behalf of the trust. This photographic album was donated to the Trust by the grandson of Sir Percy Cunynghame, Resident of the 1st Division Sarawak . The photographs within this album were taken by Charles Hose a keen photographer and district officer in Sarawak. Charles Hose distinguished himself as a geographer, anthropologist and collector of natural history specimens. His numerous journeys in the Baram District, brought him into contact with many interior tribes, who, through his influence, came under Sarawak control and made peace with Sarawak tribes.

 

The photographs within the album have been beautifully composed and are printed using platinum photographic paper which is the most durable of all photographic processes and are neatly captioned using letterpress pasted beneath the prints. The first 16 plates of the album show scenes in and around Kutching, the remainder of the album is devoted to studies of Dayak life and culture, with portraits, architectural views and studies of local life including a collection of shrunken heads!

Max produced a PDF representation of the book and also individual high resolution TIF and JPEG’s files of each picture within the album.
We are delighted to have digitised such an interesting photographic album.

For further information about the collections of the Brooke Heritage Trust contact Jason Brooke secretary@brooketrust.org