Book: Sylvia, Queen of the Headhunters

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Here's another snippet of Sarawak history, by way of a book review. Back in school, most of us would have read the history books on the White Rajahs of Sarawak - Sir James Brooke (1803-1868), Sir Charles Brooke (1829-1917) and Sir Charles Vyner Brooke (1874-1963) - who ruled Sarawak for more than a hundred years. But some of us may not be as familiar with the Rajah's wives or Ranees as they were called. James Brooke never married, so that leaves Ranee Margaret, wife of Rajah Charles and Ranee Sylvia wife of Rajah Charles Vyner.  


We will cover Ranee Margaret in another posting. This blog entry specifically focuses on Ranee Sylvia (1885-1971).

This book "Sylvia - Queen of the Headhunters" by Philip Eade is a fascinating biography about Sylvia, the Last Ranee of Sarawak. One reviewer described her as "a outrageous self-publicist, schemer and socialite extraordinaire, Sylvia Brooke, whether one liked or loathed her, was clearly an unusual woman living in extraordinary times. Well-known in her lifetime, Brooke is a woman little written about in recent years but in Sylvia, Queen of the Headhunters Philip Eade has helped to secure her place in history and has succeeded in providing a fascinating and unbiased account of the fame and infamy of Sylvia Brooke." (Erin Britton)

Sylvia Leonora Brett was the daughter of Viscount Esher and his wife Elizabeth, The young Sylvia seemed to have a difficult childhood and even tried to kill herself even before age 12. Later she sought both fame and adventure, trying her hand at storywriting, and impressing such literary luminaries as George Bernard Shaw (of "Pygmalion" fame) and J.M. Barrie (author of "Peter Pan").

Around age 24, Sylvia joined an all-female choral orchestra established by the Ranee Margaret. It was through this and related events that she met her future husband Charles Vyner. After Vyner became Rajah in 1917, Sylvia, much to her enjoyment, became Ranee of the tiny Sarawak and its population of 500,000 Malay, Chinese and native Dayaks.

The Brookes tried to be benevolent rulers and Sylvia clearly did love Sarawak, remarking that “the magic of it all possessed me, sight, sound and sense; there was in this abundant land everything for which my heart had yearned.” 


She even styled herself as the Queen of the Headhunters even though the Dayaks had stopped cutting off heads some years earlier (although there was a brief revival of the practice during the Japanese occupation of 1941-45).

Vyner and Sylvia had three somewhat wild daughters, who married eight times between them. They were known to the press as Princess Gold, Princess Pearl and Princess Baba. One of them married a wrestler; another married a band-leader. Sylvia herself was a socialite and even once on the popular British talk show Parkinson.

Charles Vyner and Sylvia

It appears that Vyner had an eye for the ladies. There were numerous other women in his life, and the marriage between him and Sylvia was described by some observers as an "open relationship". Towards their later years, they lived almost separate lives, although according to Sylvia they were still on cordial terms.


Well, an interesting addendum to Sarawak history, isn't it? Read the book if you're interested in more details.


HOMEWORK
It would be interesting if you guys can ask the elders in your family what they remember of the White Rajahs and their rule of Sarawak. Perhaps your dad or grand-dad may even have met them in person, and may have stories to add to this. Then share what you learn on this blog.


Over to you ...
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Historical Diversion: Revisiting Sheepstor, Devon UK

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Some of you who are new to this blog and its predecessor may not have heard of Sheepstor. I suggest you check one of the May 2009 postings of the Form 5 (1976) blog, where we had James Kuo (Form 5Sc, 1976) updating us on the little village of Sheepstor in the county of Devon in southern UK. You can read that posting for yourself on ...

http://stjoe-form5in1976.blogspot.com/2009/05/historical-detour-sarawak-story-in.html


A few days ago, I received an unexpected but very interesting email from a Mr Michael Williams from the UK. You can read the full email below


Subject: St Leonard's Church, Sheepstor, Devon UK
Date: Thu, 14 Oct 2010 14:27:42 +0100


Dear Mr Yong,

Have just stumbled on your St. Jo's blog while trolling around the Sheepstor Church web sites and was very interested to see the contents.  I have a special interest in St Leonard's and Sarawak as not only do I now live in retirement very near the church, but I am a committee member of the newly-formed 'Friends of St Leonard's Church, Sheepstor'.  (Try our web site which you can Google under that name - part of the West Devon Benefice site).  I lived in Sarawak from 1963-67, working as a civil engineer for the Sarawak Government JKR (PWD) and on return to UK, for 25 years I was the Secretary (later President) of the UK based Sarawak Association, which has a world-wide membership, including many Sarawakians, resident and abroad, as well as all those expats like myself who have fallen under the spell of your wonderful country and its people and wish to maintain their friendships and contacts.  With that background I jumped at the chance of joining in the formation of the 'Friends' and became a committee member with responsibilty of fostering the links between the 'Friends', The Sarawak Association and Sarawak itself.

Sorry about the lengthy intro, but it seemed a good idea to explain my background and good intentions!

How interesting to see James Kuo's article on St Leonard's and what's more, to see that he lives in Plymouth.  We'd love to make contact and maybe introduce him to some of our local Sarawakian friends.  As it happens, it won't be long before the next 'Brooke Anniversary Lunch' which I organise in South Devon in the Spring on behalf of the Sarawak Association.  We had a very good get-together last April which was held at the mediaeval Dartington Hall in Devon.

Returning to St Leonard's - As evidenced by the visitors' book, we have many visitors to the church from all over the world, including Sarawak of course, similarly fascinated by the 'Brooke Connection' and I have been fortunate to meet quite a few of them.  Now that the 'Friends' Society has been established, we are holding all sorts of events, the first of which will be a folk music concert next Sunday.  Last week we had the pleasure of entertaining a group of former teachers and missionaries who had lived and worked in Sarawak for many years who were holding a reunion in Cornwall.  Very nostalgic for us all!  Also, some time ago, we had a visit from Lord Tanlaw, the grandson of the Third Rajah, when he came with his family to lay commemorative wreaths on the tombs of the three Rajahs.  Lord Tanlaw has since become the Patron of the 'Friends' Society.

That's probably about enough for the moment, but couldn't resist contacting you to and comment on the remarkable co-incidence of an ex-St Joseph's school alumnus dropping his anchor so close to us!  If any of your group or friends are in UK and are likely to visit Devon, please contact me and if at all possible, I'll be glad to meet them and show them around.

Very best wishes to you and your year group and look forward to hearing from you,

Sincerely,

Michael Williams JBS

I have also put James Kuo in touch with Mr Williams.

In a follow-up email, Mr Wiliams also clarified - for me at least - how the "tor" part of the village name "Sheepstor". This is what he had to say ...

"In answer to a question posed by one of your blog correspondents, the village of 'Sheepstor' gets its name from an adjacent mountain, the 'tor' part of it comes from the geological formation of eroded and exposed granite rock that's, typical of our SW England area.  The First Rajah bought a country estate in Sheepstor village in 1863 and that's called Burrator after the (rather small) 'tor' in its territory.  I've attached a photo which includes the church with Sheepstor in the background.  Some of our Sarawak friends are quite surprised at how wild our part of Engalnd is, as there are huge areas of high open moorland on which wild horses and cattle roam.  It's getting quite famous as we've just had Stephen Spielberg (the Hollywood film director) near here making another of his films - it's to be called 'War Horse' - look out for it later on!  M."

Here's the photo he attached.

How fascinating. Thanks Mr Williams. I'm sure you'll have many more Sarawakians wishing to contact you to find out more about the Brooke history they did not learn in school.