View source for Charles Vyner Brooke

{{EngvarB|date=April 2018}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2018}}
{{Infobox royalty
| name         = Vyner Brooke
| image        = Charlesvynerbrooke.jpg
| caption = Official portrait, 1932
| succession   = [[White Rajahs|Rajah of Sarawak]]
| reign        = 24 May 1917 – 1 July 1946 (3rd Rajah)
| predecessor  = [[Charles Brooke, Rajah of Sarawak|Charles Brooke]]
| successor    = '''Monarchy abolished'''<br>[[Charles Arden-Clarke]] <br> [[Crown Colony of Sarawak#List of Governors of the Crown Colony of Sarawak|Governor of Sarawak]]
| birth_date   = {{birth date|df=yes|1874|9|26}}
| birth_place  = 
| death_date   = {{death date and age|df=yes|1963|5|9|1874|9|30}}
| death_place  = [[Westminster]], London, England
| spouse       = [[Sylvia Brett]]
| issue        = Leonora Margaret Brooke<br>Elizabeth Brooke<br>Nancy Valerie Brooke
| full name    = Charles Vyner de Windt Brooke
| father       = [[Charles Brooke, Rajah of Sarawak|Charles Brooke]]
| mother       = [[Margaret Brooke]]
| royal house  = [[Brooke dynasty|Brooke]]
| place of burial = [[Sheepstor#Sheepstor Church|St Leonard's Church]], [[Sheepstor]] on [[Dartmoor]]
}}

'''Charles Vyner Brooke''', (full name '''Charles Vyner de Windt Brooke''', 26 September 1874 – 9 May 1963) was the third and last [[White Rajahs|White Rajah]] of the [[Raj of Sarawak]].

==Early life==
Charles Vyner Brooke was the son of [[Charles of Sarawak|Charles Brooke]] and [[Margaret Brooke|Margaret de Windt]] ([[Queen consort|Ranee]] Margaret of Sarawak). He was born in London and spent his youth there, being educated at [[Clevedon]], [[Winchester College]], and [[Magdalene College, Cambridge]].<ref>{{acad|id=BRK894CV|name=Brooke, Charles Vyner}}</ref> He then entered the Sarawak public service.

Vyner served as ''[[aide-de-camp]]'' to his father (1897–1898), a [[district officer]] of [[Sri Aman District|Simanggang]] (1898–1901), [[Resident (title)|Resident]] of [[Mukah]] and [[Oya, Sarawak|Oya]], (1902–1903), Resident of the Third Division (1903–1904), President of the Law Courts (1904–1911) and vice-president of the Supreme and General Councils (1904–1911).

In his military career, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant into the [[3rd County of London Yeomanry (Sharpshooters)]] on 12 May 1911, but resigned from the [[Artists Rifles|(County of London) Battalion (Artist's Rifles)]] on 21 May 1913. During the [[First World War]] he served [[wikt:incognito|incognito]] as a [[Naval rating|rating]] in a naval anti-aircraft defence unit,<ref>{{Lives of WWI | id= 518122 | name= Charles Vyner Brooke }}</ref> and as a fitter in an aeroplane manufacturing works at [[Shoreditch]], East London.

He was granted the personal style of [[His Highness]] by command of [[George V of the United Kingdom|King George V]], 22 June 1911. On 21 February 1911 whilst in the United Kingdom he married [[Sylvia Brett]], daughter of [[Reginald Baliol Brett, 2nd Viscount Esher|Lord Esher]]. They returned to Sarawak.

==Rajah of Sarawak==
Vyner succeeded his father as White Rajah on 17 May 1917 following his death and was proclaimed [[Raja]]h on 24 May 1917 at [[Kuching]]. He took the oath before the [[Sarawak State Legislative Assembly|Council Negri]] on 22 July 1918. Vyner's early years as Rajah (a role he performed in tandem with his younger brother, [[Bertram Willes Dayrell Brooke|Bertram]], in accord with their father's wish){{Citation needed|date=August 2024}} saw a boom in Sarawak's rubber and oil industries and the subsequent rise in the Sarawak economy allowed him to modernise the country's institutions, including the [[civil service|public service]], and introduce a [[penal code]] based on that of [[British India]] in 1924.

He was granted a knighthood in 1927.<ref>{{Cite news |date=3 June 1927 |title=The London Gazette |pages=3606 |issue=33280 |url=https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/33280/supplement/3606 |access-date=22 April 2022}}</ref> 

Vyner ran a hands-off and relatively popular administration that banned [[Christian missionaries]] and fostered indigenous traditions (to an extent: [[headhunting]] was outlawed).

=== World War II ===
Japanese forces landed at [[Miri]], Sarawak on 16 December 1941, beginning an [[Battle of Borneo (1941–1942)|invasion of Borneo]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Kirby |first=S. Woodburn |title=The Invasion of British Borneo in 1942 |url=http://www.dutcheastindies.webs.com/sarawak.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170919115838/http://www.dutcheastindies.webs.com/sarawak.html |archive-date=19 September 2017 |access-date=19 September 2017}}</ref> In that same year, Vyner withdrew £200,000 from the Treasury for his personal expenses, in exchange for limiting his powers by a new constitution.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://sarawakdotcom.blogspot.com/|title=Kucing Berjanggut|website=Sarawakdotcom.blogspot.com|accessdate=30 December 2017}} {{unreliable source?|date=April 2018}}</ref> Vyner and his family were visiting Sydney, where he would remain for the duration of the war.{{Citation needed|date=March 2007}}

==Abdication and later life==
[[File:SIR CHARLES VYNER BROOKE 1874-1963 last Rajah of Sarawak lived here.jpg|thumb|[[Blue plaque]] on Vyner's former house in [[Albion Street, London]].]]
Vyner returned to Sarawak on 15 April 1946 and temporarily resumed power 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, London|Albion Street]], [[Bayswater]], W2 on 9 May 1963, four months before [[Crown Colony of Sarawak|Sarawak]], [[Federation of Malaya|Malaya]], [[Crown Colony of North Borneo|North Borneo]] and Singapore joined to form the Federation of [[Malaysia]] on 16 September 1963.

His nephew, [[Anthony Walter Dayrell Brooke|Anthony Brooke]], served in Sarawak in various departments in the civil service including the Land and Registry Office, and as a magistrate. Since 1937 he had also been [[Rajah Muda]] (crown prince) of Sarawak, because Vyner had three daughters but no son. Anthony opposed cession to Britain, as did a majority of the native members of the Council Negri (Parliament), and they campaigned against it for five years.

[[Anti-cession movement of Sarawak|The anti-cession movement of Sarawak]] came to a head in 1948 when the second British governor to Sarawak, [[Duncan Stewart (British diplomat)|Duncan Stewart]], was assassinated by a young nationalist named [[Rosli Dhobi]] in Sibu. Suspicion fell on Anthony for orchestrating the killing but declassified documents from the British National Archive later showed that he had no connection to the plot.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.theborneopost.com/2013/09/22/farewell-to-the-crown-prince/|title=Farewell to the Crown Prince|date=21 September 2013|website=Theborneopost.com|accessdate=30 December 2017}}</ref>

Vyner, his father, his brother Bertram, the Tuan Muda, and Rajah James, are buried in St Leonard's Church in the village of [[Sheepstor]] on [[Dartmoor]], Devon.

==Family==
He had three daughters, whose names could be preceded by the Malay honorific of ''Dayang'' (Lady):
* Leonora Margaret, Countess of Inchcape, wife of the [[Kenneth Mackay, 2nd Earl of Inchcape|2nd Earl of Inchcape]] (one son, [[Simon Mackay, Baron Tanlaw|Lord Tanlaw]], and one daughter) and, after his death, of US Colonel Francis Parker Tompkins (one son).
* Elizabeth, born in London, September 2, 1913, a [[Royal Academy of Dramatic Art]]-educated singer and actress, wife of firstly [[Harry Roy]] (one son and one daughter), and secondly, Julian Richards Vidmer. She died March 14, 2002, at Redington Shores, Florida.
* Nancy Valerie, an actress, known for ''[[The Charge of the Light Brigade (1936 film)|The Charge of the Light Brigade]]'', wife of firstly, Robert Gregory, an American wrestler; secondly, José Pepi Cabarro – a Spanish businessman; thirdly, Andrew Aitken Macnair (one son, Stewart, born 1952); and fourthly, Memery Whyatt. She died in Florida.

==Legacy==
The ship [[SS Vyner Brooke|SS ''Vyner Brooke'']] was named after him.

A species of lizard endemic to Sarawak, ''[[Dasia vyneri]]'', is named in his honor.<ref>Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). ''The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. {{ISBN|978-1-4214-0135-5}}. ("Vyner", p. 277).</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

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{{s-hou|Brooke family|26 September|1874|9 May|1963}}
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{{s-bef||rows=2|before=[[Charles Brooke, Rajah of Sarawak|Charles]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[White Rajahs|Rajah of Sarawak]]|years=1917–1946}}
{{s-non|reason=Monarchy abolished|reason2=[[Crown Colony of Sarawak#List of Governors of the Crown Colony of Sarawak|Sarawak becomes a crown colony]]}}
{{s-break}}
{{s-ttl|title=Head of Government of Sarawak|years=1917–1946}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Charles Arden-Clarke]]|as=[[Crown Colony of Sarawak#List of Governors of the Crown Colony of Sarawak|Governor of Sarawak]]}}
{{s-pre|}}
{{S-new|loss|reason=Monarchy abolished}}
{{s-tul|title=[[White Rajahs|Rajah of Sarawak]]|years=1946–1963}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Anthony Brooke]]}}
{{end}}

{{Raj of Sarawak |state=collapsed}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brooke, Charles Vyner}}
[[Category:1874 births]]
[[Category:1963 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Greenwich]]
[[Category:Alumni of Magdalene College, Cambridge]]
[[Category:Rajas of Sarawak|Charles Vyner Brooke]]
[[Category:People educated at Winchester College]]
[[Category:Monarchs in Southeast Asia]]
[[Category:Knights Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George]]
[[Category:Burials in Devon]]
[[Category:3rd County of London Yeomanry (Sharpshooters) officers]]
[[Category:Artists' Rifles officers]]
[[Category:Monarchs who abdicated]]