Remembering another Brooke

THE news of the recent death of James Bertram Lionel Brooke in Scotland on May 27 came as a shock to all those who had met him for the first time in Kuching six years ago. The occasion was the exhibition with the theme ‘Remembering Anthony’ organised by the State Library.

I will call him Lionel throughout this article. He was the only son of the late Anthony Brooke, once the Rajah Muda of Sarawak and an heir to the Raj.

On behalf of those of us who have come to know Lionel’s son, Jason, a frequent visitor to Sarawak and Secretary of the Brooke Heritage Trust, I would like to convey our heartfelt and sincere condolences to him and his relatives. Our thoughts are with them during their bereavement.

Anthony Brooke, appointed Rajah Muda in 1939 by his uncle the Third Rajah of Sarawak, Sir Charles Vyner Brooke, would have become our ruler had Fate not been so cruel. The Raj suddenly came to an end after 100 years. Blame the Japanese invasion and occupation (1941 to 1945) and the decision of his uncle, Vyner Brooke, to cede Sarawak to the British Crown as a colony in 1946.

As a small child at the time of this happening, Lionel knew little about Sarawak but was aware only of the family connection and, perhaps, a vague idea of the possibility of becoming a Rajah on one fine day. But to the historians, this change of political status of Sarawak was a particularly cruel blow to him because he would have inherited the Raj after his father’s death, assuming that the Raj had continued to exist.

According to the Will of 1867 drawn up by his great granduncle James Brooke and confirmed and reaffirmed by great uncle Charles in 1913, Lionel was the sixth in direct line to the Raj.

Friends often ask me why I tend to be partial to the Brookes. There’s an explanation for this. Allow me to digress here.

On Aug 31, 1839, before he became ruler of Sarawak, James Brooke had visited the village called Stunggang in Lundu. I was born in that village – 97 years later.

In 1848, the Society for The Propagation of the Gospel (SPG) came to Sarawak and one of its outstation centres was established at Stunggang. The formation of this Christian Mission had been directly or indirectly initiated by the tourist when he went back to England to see his mother the previous year.

This piece of Sarawak history may not be of direct interest to the rest of the world, but as the events actually took place, they are very interesting to me as a History buff.

On Aug 31, 1983, Sarawak celebrated the 20th anniversary of the formation of Malaysia and Anthony Brooke was a guest of the state government. I was given the task by the state’s protocol officer to accompany the guest who wanted to visit Anah Rais village.

During the ride to Anah Rais, among other things, I asked Anthony Brooke about the Sarawak Cession of 1946. He was more interested in something else. Instead, he was briefing me on the latest project that he and his wife Gita were undertaking – a charitable trust called ‘Peace Through Unity’ – an NGO promoting harmony between different cultures. I was moved.

Now can we go on to the main theme of this column?

Lionel was born in Bombay on Aug 16, 1940. Before the war came to Sarawak in December the following year, he was enjoying life at the Astana in Kuching, learning the local Malay language from tutors and translating it to English whenever his parents spoke to him. That must have perplexed, or rather, pleased, them. What a clever boy he was.

Just before the Japanese forces landed in Miri, his parents had whisked him away to England on board one of the P&O liners on its last voyage westward from Singapore, before the fall of the colony.

While in England, Lionel went to Pinewood School, later to Eton, where he was fondly called the ‘Rajah’, to his slight discomfort. It was at Eton that he developed a passion for motor racing and “almost getting to Monaco”, having raced at Brand Hatch and Silverstone. He helped found the Eton Automobile Association. He was elected house captain and a member of the Eton Society (Pop).

In his article in the ‘Borneo Chronicle’ of Autumn/Winter 2011, he talks frankly about his family’s political trouble; for him missing his parents when they were away from home was traumatic. Where were they? They were in Sarawak, helping to organise the anti-cession movement.

It is interesting to note Lionel’s take on the cession. According to him, “This unconstitutional act was breach of trust with the Sarawak people who had not been consulted in the matter, as well as with my Grandfather, the Tuan Muda, who had ruled Sarawak six months of the year for 30 years …” The Grandfather was Bertram Brooke.

Anthony gave up the struggle for the retention of Brooke Raj in 1951, having led the movement for five years, and acknowledging the futility of the pursuit in the face of a more serious danger – the communist threat to the security of Sarawak.

When he was banned from entering Sarawak by the colonial government, Lionel’s mother Ranee Muda Kathleen went to Sarawak for eight months to help boost the spirits of the anti-cession campaigners.

Lionel’s legacy

In 2011, there was a memorial service held for his father in Kuching. He and family were there. To the surprise, pleasant surprise, of the descendants of many of the anti-cession campaigners, there came the announcement on behalf of the British Government which exonerated Anthony Brooke, suspected by the British agents for allegedly colluding in the planning to murder Sir Duncan Steward, second governor of Sarawak in Sibu in 1949.

That public announcement made in church sounded like the confession from a truly contrite heart but it came too late for Anthony himself to hear. For he had died earlier in the year in Wanganui, New Zealand.

Nonetheless, it must have been a great relief for Lionel and his family and friends of Anthony’s innocence which they had known all along to be the case.

I was watching the whole proceeding; it was extraordinary.

For Lionel coming back to Sarawak after 70 years of absence was like coming home – a nostalgic trip and for us, Sarawakians, a blessing. As the chairman of the Brooke Heritage Trust, he is leaving to us an important legacy – the project to digitise the papers of the Brookes, held in Rhodes House Library, Oxford, and to acquire a number of interesting items and documents of historic value for preservation and public display in Kuching.

All this has been carried out with the ready cooperation of the Sarawak Museum, the State Library and the Rhodes House Library. Good on them.

If I may be allowed to be proactive herein, I would like to appeal to Sarawakians and non-Sarawakians alike, everywhere, to take advantage of the offer by the Trust to digitise documents relating to Brooke and Colonial Era Sarawak.

Owners of appropriate heirlooms or photographs or images may be keeping such things in boxes tucked away in some corners or left on dusty shelves. Hand them over to the Trust and in there these items will be in safe hands.

In case you are not prepared to part away with your property, have it photographed and provide relevant information to the Trust’s office. And you will be remembered for a long time for your generous contribution to the Sarawak’s heritage itself.

Comments can reach the writer via [email protected].