November-December 1905: The end of an era, and the start of one anew
The outskirts of Kuching, Kingdom Of Sarawak, 17 November 1905
Lily Brooke was close to breaking.
It wasn’t the fact that the present day marked the anniversary of her husband’s death, though that did crush her spirit. It wasn't the fact that her mother is still inconsolable, though that did made her anxious and frustrated as the only daughter. It wasn’t even that her two children, Walter and Elizabeth, now playing on the front verandah of the royal bungalow, were too young to understand how much they had lost.
No, it was because of the barge that would arrive tomorrow morning… bearing her late father and brother.
No, not only that. Despite it being four days since their deaths, her other brother is still avoiding her letters and telegrams. From the moment she heard the news and recovered from the grief, Lily reached out to her only surviving sibling, only to be answered with silence upon silence upon utter silence. She knew what it meant, and she knew Clayton was grieving in his own way, but she was afraid that her brother might not be sound of mind after watching her father’s…
No. He mustn’t. He can’t.
“Telegrams for Dayang Lily!” [A]
She almost jumped at the voice; the footsteps of the Malay postman halted before the gravel path and the front steps. Something about her emotions must have shown on her face, for his’ immediately turned concerning beneath his blue cap. “Dayang Lily, are you fine?”
She could her the children’s governess standing up to speak, and the Sikh garden-guards turning their heads at his outspokenness. “No, wait! it’s alright! It’s - um… alright. I’m fine.” She changed her language. “Surat saya? – My papers?”
“Di sini – here.” The postman handed over a thick sheaf of wrapped paper. Something must have still shown on her face, for he also said after a moment, in halting English, “And my deep regrets. From all of us. Know that we are all sad, with you.” Then, he turned around and walked down the gravel path. Watching the man disappear into the day, Lily then turned her attention to the papers in her hands. The undersea cables between Sundaland and the wider world must have been repaired, for the Italians and French and the Russians in Phuket had cut them all off to cripple any sort of communication with Britain and India; Sarawak had been dearth of any news about the war in Europe for the past few months.
Still, she wondered what would entail such a response to herself; usually, it was her father and brothers whom received such papers. Then, she stilled.
What? Lily was stunned. Henry? Uncle Henry? But it wasn’t that. As she went through the papers, it was clear why they were sent to her.
At the end of each passage was inscribed the name of the sender, and they were from all across her extended family and friends from Great Britain. The Crookshanks, the Bampfyldes, the Nicols, the de Windts… and some were even prefaced with titles: The former Admiral of the Fleet; the Director of the London Museum of Natural History; even the bloody Barrington viscount of Ireland! [AA]
Somehow, the last paper surfaced so quickly to her eyes.
“Mummy? What’s wrong?”
Lily turned aside, and realized that she could barely see her son through her tears.
With all the love of a mother, she folded her knees and hugged her Walter.
“It’s nothing dear. It’s nothing at all.”
But it was something. Even as rivulets began to flow down her face, even as she shook with sobs, an iron strength began to coalesce in her core, as if the letters were transferring their hope through her skin. A new fire began to course through Lily’s veins. She would not stay silent and no nothing. She wasn’t just a Dayang, or a sibling, she was a Brooke, and she would get her brother out of his moroseness even if it meant barging into his room, console his feelings, and then slap him to his senses.
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Amarjit Kaur, Sarawak under Charles, (Lido Press, 1999)
…an estimated 60,000 people crammed the rivers and ports of Sarawak to witness the funeral procession sail back to Kuching. During a refuelling stop at Sibu, a parade of Chinese Methodists led a ceremony at the pier, praying their respects to the monarch who offered them a new home. Across the Sarawak River, scores of residents clambered up riverside palms to view the convoy, or rowed their sampans to accompany the fleet. When the bodies of Charles and his son Clarke finally arrived to the capital, an estimated 100,000 mourners – some travelling for over a week – crammed the narrow streets and shophouses of the city to the absolute limit.
With the oceans still unsafe and their body conditions degraded, it was decided that Charles Anthoni Johnson Brooke, the White Rajah and war leader who reigned for 37 years, and Clarke Willis Brooke, the crown prince whom was supposed to inherit that legacy, would be buried in Sarawak. Laid to rest in the very soil the family had ruled.
Their funerals themselves were a spectacle to behold. The wood-built cathedral of St. Thomas was packed to overflowing, with the Chinese and Dayak congregations sitting side-to-side with their European fellows. Westwards, the imam of Kuching’s Grand Mosque led a Friday funeral khutbah to a worshipping crowd that equally overflowed onto the riverside cemetery. Across Sarawak, mourning and remembrance rituals were conducted across many Dayak longhouses, honouring their fallen warriors and to the semangat-filled leaders whom upheld the values of the land. Charles Brooke did much for Sarawak, but he and his eldest son had never united it as deeply as with their own deaths.
But it wasn’t only their deaths that Sarawak mourned. Despite being a regional player in the Great War, the kingdom felt the horrific consequences of industrial conflict first-hand. From the Italian bombardment of Bandar Charles, to the conquest and reconquest of the outlying archipelagos, to the horrific Askari atrocities along the Kinabatangan, the casualty rates among Sarawakians reached untold proportions never before seen in Bornean historiography. Over 8,000 Dayak warriors and Sarawak Rangers perished in the land battles of Borneo, along with over 4,000 sailors and seamen from both the kingdom’s navy and merchant marine. The civilian casualties were just as high, with up to an estimated 7,000 men, women, and children dying at the hands of Italian soldiers, Jeune Ecole bombardments, and Askari massacres.
All in all, the Kingdom of Sarawak with her 400,000-strong population lost an estimated 19,231 souls to the Great War. 4.7% of her entire people. While seemingly paltry when compared to the astronomical death tolls of Europe and Africa, the kingdom’s largest warrior-army ever fielded by the Brookes till then (the Kayan Expedition of 1863) comprised of over 15,000 men. In short, Sarawak not only lost her Rajah and prospective heir, but also the equivalent of an entire army to slaughter. Almost every Malay village and Dayak longhouse across the lowlands were affected, losing either a sailor, a porter, a warrior, or a Ranger to the carnage.
With this, it is no small wonder why, to this day, Sarawak is one of the few nations of Asia that holds a Remembrance Day for their fallen from the War.
Photograph of a commemoration ceremony for a Great War memorial at Saratok, 1921.
Despite the kingdom bearing a Resident-Councillor system of rule that engendered consensus among the river basins, absolute power began to accrue on the person of the monarch, with Charles having a final say in new laws, taxes, and bills across the land. The Council Negri – the assembly of chieftains, headmen, and European residents – was nothing more than an advisory body, assembled only once in three years to be nothing more than a rubber stamp to enforce Charles’ will. His position as head of the Kuching High Court also saw undue influence in law, being able to enact punishments and sentences on important cases.
But in matters of war and peace, the Rajah was truly paramount. The expansion of Sarawak saw Charles Brooke adopting the roles of general, commander, arbitrator, and envoy on both the national and international stage. Not only did he cobbled peace treaties and declare war on recalcitrant tribes on his own, but fought on the front lines with his Dayak-Malay auxiliaries and carved up the Bruneian Empire through repeated intrusions of territory, and often personally. The Italian writer Emilio Salgari was not wholly exaggerating when he noted, “…The White Rajah of Borneo personifies the saying: ‘L'état, C'est Moi’ – The State, I Am.’”
The Great War heralded this end. It also trumpeted another closure; that of the patronizing way the kingdom was ruled. Though the late 19th century saw a rise in settled towns, a native merchant class, new infrastructure, and increased transport, Rajah Charles still viewed the Dayaks and Malays as not worthy of the industrial age. In short, he and his sons saw the preservation of traditional society as a moral, near-sacred duty. While this thinking averted Sarawak from the mass exploitation concurrent with colonialism elsewhere, it also left the state severely behind on development; there were no general hospitals, nor a modern naval command, or even a standing army. Education was still under the purview of churches and mosques, while railways were spare and only used to transport ore from regional mines to the docks. Past the material towns, the rainforest beyond still covered over 90% of Sarawak, wild and verdant.
It was this kingdom that Clayton Brooke found himself the ruler of, and he did not take it well. While most chieftains noted his stoicism upon receiving his father and brother’s bodies at Sandakan, Clayton became emotionally distant from his fellows and his family, not even receiving any word from family friends or his mother and sister. The open slap that Lily Brooke gave to him upon his arrival at the Astana was a shocking show of familial discord, but so was the hug she gave him after.
It was only later on, into the following year, that the true extent of Clayton’s misgivings became fully known. But in the days following his father and brother’s funeral, such matters were eclipsed by another issue on everyone’s lips: the succession….
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The Astana, Kuching, Kingdom of Sarawak, 1 December 1905
Clayton Brooke had felt nervousness throughout his life, but this was a new one.The Astana, Kuching, Kingdom of Sarawak, 1 December 1905
“How are you feeling?” his sister asked, her hat and lipstick seeming to mask her lips shifting form.
“Like my stomach would drop out.”
“It’s only for the day-” Lil started, but a shout of “ATTENTION!!” broke off their chat. With solemnity, the pair began to walk down the Astana steps with their mother following behind, flanked all the while by a procession of Sikh guards and Sarawak Rangers. A retinue of Supreme Council members, local chieftains, and ex-Bruneian lords (“no… Sarawakian.” Clayton corrected to himself) followed behind.
The river jetty was already prepared when they arrived, with the ferry being bedecked in ribbons of yellow: the Malay colour of royalty. At the sight, Clayton held his breath. I shouldn’t be here. But with a nudging from his sister beside him, he found himself swinging his legs aboard. Then, in a seeming blink of an eye, the party found itself on the opposite bank, docking before a watching crowd by the riverfront.
I’m not ready for this, Clayton thought, and for one mad moment, he envisioned himself vaulting over his seat and swimming back to his private quarters in the royal residence. But just as quickly as the idea came, it faded, and he found himself walking into a horse-drawn carriage past a crowd of Sarawakians shouting “Tuan Rajah! Tuan Rajah!”.
I am no Rajah. I wasn’t even trained to be one. For all the twins appeared from the outside, and for all they had experienced and learnt as administrators, it was no question that Clarke Brooke was the more favoured in leadership. Daring, more headstrong, he was the one invited to the Supreme Council meetings, learning beside his father on the matters of state. Clarke was the heir who was supposed to lead Sarawak, and he was instructed on how to do so for quite some time. Not me.
But both father and brother are gone.
The carriage halted.
Clayton stepped out to an endless sea of people. The great Padang of Kuching – the open stretch of land between the High Court and the museum [1] – was brimming with souls whom came to see the unprecedented ceremony. Faces from Borneo, East Asia, Europe, and even Arabia were all mixed together in a jumble of colours, feathers, and sun-kissed parasols. It was a Friday, and the Muslim community were especially notable among the crowd, stretching out onto the local Grand Mosque. Nearby, a makeshift orchestra of Malay brassworks, Chinese strings, and Dayak reeds belted out the Sarawak anthem.
But it was what Clayton saw up ahead that truly froze him: the pavilion, stage, dais, and podium all awaiting. And beside all that, the Chief Executioner of the High Court, bearing the sword of Rajah James. [2]
Instantly, Clayton recalled his sister’s words before the Supreme Council. “The people need a symbol to show that all will be well. Something like this has not been done before, but it would go a long way to instil confidence in Sarawak. And amongst our neighbours.”
“Breathe.” His sister whispered, and the Rajah-to-be realized that he had been holding his breath. Swallowing his nervousness, Clayton let himself be moved with the ceremony, accepting the sword of James Brooke before affixing it to his waist. Then, he climbed onto the podium to face the people. His people.
And amongst them all, he saw a face. A face that showed concern, hope, and determination for the man. Clayton looked, and felt his hesitation slipping away.
When James Brooke became Rajah, there was hardly any ceremony. When Charles Brooke ascended, he swore an oath before the Council Negri from the Astana. Now, Clayton would etch a new mark in Sarawak history.
Here we go.
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The first sentence of Rajah Clayton’s accession oath:
“Kita, Clayton George Brooke, bersumpah diatas semua kitab suci untuk membaktikan Nyawa keatas kemakmuran rakyat sebagai Rajah negara Sarawak!”
- “We, Clayton George Brooke, swear on all the sacred scriptures to dedicate Our lives to the people’s prosperity as Rajah of the nation of Sarawak!” [3]
____________________
Notes:
+ The picture I used for Lily Brooke is actually Kathleen Hudden, the wife of Anthony Brooke IOTL.
[A] 'Dayang' is an old Malay term that used to mean "servant" or "lady-in-waiting" in an esteemed household. However, the word in Brunei picked up noble connotations and was later used to denote royalty and nobility, meaning "High Lady" or "Princess". Sarawak, being a conquerer of much of Brunei, retained the term and used it for their own, both IOTL and ITTL.
[AA] The names and families in the telegrams are all connected to Sarawak in some way. Some are based in OTL and some are ITTL.
a) Henry Stuart Johnson is the brother of Charles Brooke and of John Brooke Johnson, the first crown prince of Sarawak under Rajah James (or at least until he allowed the Dutch to retake the Sentarum Floodplains). While he died in 1904 IOTL, he lives just long enough in this timeline to get some comforting words out to his niece.
b) The Crookshanks are the family of Arthur Chichester Crookshank, a cousin of James Brooke who became the Rajah’s chief secretary from the 1840’s to the 1870’s IOTL. He remains mostly unchanged in this timeline (somehow, there’s no public genealogy that I could find online about him).
c) The Bampfyldes are the family of Charles Agar Bampfylde, a son of a British Major whom worked in the Sarawak Civil Service and as Resident of the Kuching Division throughout Rajah Charles’ reign. After retiring in 1903, he became the kingdom’s political agent in Great Britain, a duty that he still serves ITTL.
d) The Nicols are the family of James Dyce Nicol, a Scottish Liberal politician whom funded Sarawak’s early phase under Rajah James and was director of the Borneo Company Ltd, the monopolistic corporation that’s handling the kingdom’s gold mines. ITTL, the family haven’t forgotten their Bornean investments.
e) The de Windts are Margaret Brooke’s extended family and siblings. While there was some friction between the parents and her due to her marriage, members of the family did serve in Sarawak as Residents, civil servants, or aide-de-camps under Rajah Charles. Indeed, Margaret’s brother Harry de Windt worked in the kingdom for a few years as aide-de-camp before becoming an explorer in his own right.
f) The (Former) Admiral of the Fleet: a five-star officer rank and the highest rank of the Royal Navy. A few British admirals with this rank served in Sarawak or with James and Charles Brooke, such as Sir Thomas Cochrane and Sir Henry Keppel. ITTL, it was these men that covered for Sarawak’s naval losses and secretly aided the kingdom during the Great War.
g) [the] Director of the London Museum of Natural History: The eponymous museum in London contains (even OTL) many specimens collected by naturalists in Sarawak, including from Alfred Russel Wallace, a friend of the Brooke family and a major backer of the Sarawak Museum in Kuching. Because of this history, the director and Wallace himself send their condolences.
h) [even the] bloody Barrington viscount of Ireland! : aka. Walter Barrington, the 9th Viscount of Barrington of Ardglass in the County of Down, in what is today Northern Ireland. As a member of the British and Irish aristocracy, he never thought much of the White Rajahs in his life, until…
i) …Hope Brooke aka. John Charles Evelyn Hope Brooke came along. He is a son of John Brooke Johnson (the first heir to Sarawak) and married viscount Barrington’s daughter, Violet Mary Barrington, in 1892, making the Barrington family in-laws to the Brooke dynasty. I decided to keep the marriage ITTL because:
b) The Crookshanks are the family of Arthur Chichester Crookshank, a cousin of James Brooke who became the Rajah’s chief secretary from the 1840’s to the 1870’s IOTL. He remains mostly unchanged in this timeline (somehow, there’s no public genealogy that I could find online about him).
c) The Bampfyldes are the family of Charles Agar Bampfylde, a son of a British Major whom worked in the Sarawak Civil Service and as Resident of the Kuching Division throughout Rajah Charles’ reign. After retiring in 1903, he became the kingdom’s political agent in Great Britain, a duty that he still serves ITTL.
d) The Nicols are the family of James Dyce Nicol, a Scottish Liberal politician whom funded Sarawak’s early phase under Rajah James and was director of the Borneo Company Ltd, the monopolistic corporation that’s handling the kingdom’s gold mines. ITTL, the family haven’t forgotten their Bornean investments.
e) The de Windts are Margaret Brooke’s extended family and siblings. While there was some friction between the parents and her due to her marriage, members of the family did serve in Sarawak as Residents, civil servants, or aide-de-camps under Rajah Charles. Indeed, Margaret’s brother Harry de Windt worked in the kingdom for a few years as aide-de-camp before becoming an explorer in his own right.
f) The (Former) Admiral of the Fleet: a five-star officer rank and the highest rank of the Royal Navy. A few British admirals with this rank served in Sarawak or with James and Charles Brooke, such as Sir Thomas Cochrane and Sir Henry Keppel. ITTL, it was these men that covered for Sarawak’s naval losses and secretly aided the kingdom during the Great War.
g) [the] Director of the London Museum of Natural History: The eponymous museum in London contains (even OTL) many specimens collected by naturalists in Sarawak, including from Alfred Russel Wallace, a friend of the Brooke family and a major backer of the Sarawak Museum in Kuching. Because of this history, the director and Wallace himself send their condolences.
h) [even the] bloody Barrington viscount of Ireland! : aka. Walter Barrington, the 9th Viscount of Barrington of Ardglass in the County of Down, in what is today Northern Ireland. As a member of the British and Irish aristocracy, he never thought much of the White Rajahs in his life, until…
i) …Hope Brooke aka. John Charles Evelyn Hope Brooke came along. He is a son of John Brooke Johnson (the first heir to Sarawak) and married viscount Barrington’s daughter, Violet Mary Barrington, in 1892, making the Barrington family in-laws to the Brooke dynasty. I decided to keep the marriage ITTL because:
aa) it’s waaaay too odd to be knocked-off, and
bb) the other aristocratic family I wanted to include (the Brooke Baronets) didn’t have any marriageable girls from the 1890’s to 1905.
bb) the other aristocratic family I wanted to include (the Brooke Baronets) didn’t have any marriageable girls from the 1890’s to 1905.
1. You can still visit the open field at Kuching today, though the front portion – behind the courthouse – has been built over into today’s Plaza Merdeka shopping mall.
2. The sword of James Brooke was a cutlass that he personally used during his years at Sarawak. IOTL, it was presented to each succeeding ruler on their accession and displayed on important ceremonies. ITTL, it is one of the symbols of royal regalia that Clayton must arm for his accession. The photo of the sword was one I took myself from my visit to Kuching.
3. Incredibly, we still have the accession oath of Charles Vyner Brooke, (the OTL third Rajah of Sarawak) of which I tweaked the words around. During Vyner’s accession, he was coronated inside the Sarawak Club, a private building for the officers of the kingdom. ITTL, the pain of the Great War and the deaths of Rajah Charles and the crown prince Clarke would push the Astana for a more public coronation ceremony in downtown Kuching. This would ensure the public that Sarawak and the Brooke family would continue, no matter what. And yes, this would set a precedent.
EDIT: Okay, I did not realize noting stuff using the alphabet would embold the whole update! Also tweaked a few words and errors.
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I can't wait to see what the future holds for the Kingdom of Sarawak under the reign of Rajah Clayton; I wouldn't be surprised if the kingdom survives all the way up to the present day.
