Brooke, Charles Anthony ___ 1829-1917 ___ British ___ civilservant sovereign

BIOGRAPHICAL SUMMARY
There is not much information about Sir Charles Brooke, nee Johnson, on the internet, although there is more about his uncle Sir James Brooke, who preceded him as the first Rajah of Sarawak. Charles was born in Somerset, and trained for the navy. By his early 20s, he had already joined the Sarawak Service. He became a benevolent administrator, learning the language and employing local people. In 1864, the UK recognised Sarawak as a separate state. In 1866, his diary, 'Ten Years in Sarawak', was published. In 1868, he was proclaimed the second Rajah (and changed his name from Johnson to Brooke). Thereafter, he ruled Sarawak for 50 years with a mild hand, resisting rapid modernisation or much immigration. In 1888, Britain agreed to make Sarawak a protectorate; and in the same year, Queen Victoria awarded Brooke a knighthood. His son, Charles Vyner, went on to become the next and last rajah before Sarawak was ceded to the UK in 1946.
A biography link
Wikipedia bio

DIARY DATES, CONTENT DESCRIPTORS
1852-1862 1866-1868 ___ maritime political social Malaysia

WEB TEXT LINKS
 

ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT LINKS
State Library of New South Wales - 1866-1868 copy

SOME PUBLISHED TITLES
Ten Years in Sarawak
 

November 2005, September 2008
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IMPORTANT NOTES AND CAUTIONS: 1) The first line of basic information may be incomplete in several ways: some historical figures have different names (titles, pen-names); their birth and death dates may be unknown or uncertain (g - guess, c - circa); similarly, their occupations may be unknown, or they may have had other jobs; and, for early diarists, I've used 'British' a bit too freely. 2) The biographical summary may not be accurate. It was compiled quickly from various sources, mostly on the internet, and the facts were not checked anywhere near as rigorously as they would have been if they'd been intended for publication in a printed form. 3) The journal dates and descriptors (which are in no particular order) must be treated with caution: since I have not examined the diaries myself, the descriptors are only guesses based on bibliographies, anthologies and internet biographies. 4) For the biography and etext links, I have ignored any sites with charges, and I have avoided, wherever possible, those with pop-ups or too much advertising. I have limited myself to providing three etext links where there is some variety between them. 5) For the original manuscript links, I have limited myself to providing a maximum of two (although, for a few diarists, their original diaries are held in more than two places). 6) I have provided the titles - chosen randomly - for up to three printed editions of the diaries.