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Charles Vyner Brooke

Charles Vyner Brooke

Male 1874 - 1963  (88 years)    Has more than 100 ancestors and 11 descendants in this family tree.

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  • Name Charles Vyner Brooke 
    Birth 26 Sep 1874  London, Middlesex, England Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Gender Male 
    Death 9 May 1963 
    Siblings 5 Siblings 
    Person ID I682365  Geneagraphie
    Last Modified 13 Oct 2010 

    Father Charles Anthoni Johnson-Brooke,   b. 3 Jun 1829, Berrow Vicarage, Burnham, Somerset, England Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 17 May 1917 (Age 87 years) 
    Mother Margaret Alice Lili de Windt   d. Yes, date unknown 
    Marriage 28 Oct 1869  Highworth, Wiltshire, England Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Family ID F348751  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

    Family Sylvia Brett   d. Yes, date unknown 
    Children 
    +1. Leonora Margaret Brooke   d. Yes, date unknown
     2. Elizabeth Brooke   d. Yes, date unknown
    +3. Nancy Valerie Brooke   d. Florida, USA Find all individuals with events at this location
    Family ID F348749  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
    Last Modified 13 Oct 2010 

  • Event Map Click to hide
    Link to Google MapsBirth - 26 Sep 1874 - London, Middlesex, England Link to Google Earth
     = Link to Google Earth 
    Pin Legend  : Address       : Location       : City/Town       : County/Shire       : State/Province       : Country       : Not Set

  • Notes 
    • educated at Clevedon, Winchester College, and Magdalene College, Cambridge. He then entered the Sarawak public service.

      Vyner served as aide-de-camp to his father 1897-1898, district officer of Simanggang 1898-1901, Resident of Mukah and Oya, 1902\endash 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 2nd Lieutenant 3rd County of London (Sharpshooters) Yeomanry (12 May 1911), resigning on 21 May 1913. During the Great War he served incognito as a private in anti-aircraft defence and as a fitter in the aeroplane manufacturing works at Shoreditch, east London.

      He was granted the personal style of His Highness by command of George V, 22 June 1911. It was in England that he met and married The Hon. Sylvia Brett, daughter of Lord Esher, on 21 February 1911. They returned to Sarawak.

      Following the death of his father, Vyner succeeded on 17 May and was proclaimed Rajah on 24 May 1917 at Kuching. He took the oath before the Council Negri on 22 July 1918. Vyner's early years as Rajah saw a boom in the Sarawak rubber and oil industries and the subsequent rise in the Sarawak economy allowed him to modernise the country's institutions, including the public service, and introduce a penal code developed on British India lines in 1924.

      Granted a knighthood in 1927, Vyner continued to run a hands-off and relatively popular administration that banned 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. Vyner and his family were visiting Sydney, Australia, where he would remain for the duration of the war.

      The Daily Telegraph described him as "a cloud-living Old Wykehamist, ... one of the few monarchs left in the world who could still say 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.

      Vyner returned to Sarawak on 15 April 1946 and temporarily resumed 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 , four months before Sarawak as well as Malaya, Sabah and Singapore joined together to form the Federation of Malaysia.

      Vyner, his father and Rajah James, are buried in St Leonard's Church in the village of Sheepstor on Dartmoor.



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