29 Facts About James Brooke

James Brooke, was a British soldier and adventurer who founded the Raj of Sarawak in Borneo.

James Brooke ruled as the first White Rajah of Sarawak from 1841 until his death in 1868.

James Brooke then bought a ship and sailed to the Malay Archipelago where, in gratitude for helping to crush a rebellion, he was rewarded with the position of governor of Sarawak.

James Brooke was not without detractors and was criticised in the British Parliament and officially investigated in Singapore for his anti-piracy measures.

James Brooke was honoured and feted in London for his activities in Southeast Asia.

James Brooke was born in Bandel, near Calcutta, Bengal, but baptised in Secrole, a suburb of Benares.

James Brooke's father, Thomas Brooke, was an English judge in the Court of Appeal at Bareilly, British India; his mother, Anna Maria was born in Hertfordshire and was the daughter of Scottish peer Colonel William Stuart, 9th Lord Blantyre, and his mistress Harriott Teasdale.

James Brooke stayed at home in India until he was sent to England at the age of 12 for a brief education at Norwich School from which he ran away.

James Brooke saw action in Assam during the First Anglo-Burmese War until he was seriously wounded in 1825 and sent to England for recovery.

James Brooke attempted to trade in the Far East, but was not successful.

Rajah James Brooke was highly successful in suppressing the widespread piracy of the region.

James Brooke was granted the title of Rajah of Sarawak on 24 September 1841, although the official declaration was not made until 18 August 1842.

In 1844 James Brooke began anti-pirate operations with ships of the Royal Navy and the East India Company off north-east Sumatra.

James Brooke negotiated the cession on 18 December 1846 and took possession of Labuan on 24 December 1846.

James Brooke was appointed governor and commander-in-chief of Labuan in 1848.

James Brooke returned temporarily to England in 1847, where he was given the Freedom of the City of London, appointed British consul-general in Borneo and created a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath.

James Brooke pacified the native peoples, including the Dayaks, and suppressed headhunting and piracy.

James Brooke had many Dayaks in his forces and said that only Dayaks could kill Dayaks.

In 1851 James Brooke was accused of using excessive force against the native people, under the guise of anti-piracy operations, leading to the appointment of a Commission of Inquiry in Singapore in 1854.

James Brooke was influenced by the success of previous British adventurers and the exploits of the East India Company.

James Brooke married Martha Elizabeth Mowbray on 10 July 1862, and had seven children, three of whom survived infancy; the oldest was named James.

Francis William Douglas, the Acting Resident for Brunei and Labuan from November 1913 to January 1915 in a letter to the Foreign Office on 19 July 1915 stated that he heard from Pengiran Anak Hashima that James Brooke had been married to her aunt Pengiran Fatima, the daughter of Pengiran Anak Abdul Kadir and the granddaughter of Muhammad Kanzul Alam, the 21st Sultan of Brunei.

James Brooke died in Burrator, Dartmoor, Devon, in south-west England, on 11 June 1868, having suffered three strokes during his last ten years, and was buried at the graveyard of St Leonard's Church in Sheepstor.

James Brooke is featured in Flashman's Lady, the 6th book in George MacDonald Fraser's meticulously researched The Flashman Papers novels.

James Brooke is the main antagonist in the second and third novels of Emilio Salgari's Sandokan series.

James Brooke was a model for the hero of Joseph Conrad's novel Lord Jim, and he is briefly mentioned in Rudyard Kipling's short story "The Man Who Would Be King".

In 1936, Errol Flynn intended to star in a film of James Brooke's life called The White Rajah for Warner Bros.

In September 2016, a film based on James Brooke's life was to be made in Sarawak with the support of Abang Abdul Rahman Johari of the Government of Sarawak, with writer Rob Allyn and Sergei Bodrov as its director.

James Brooke was a close friend of Viscount Bury's uncle, Henry Keppel having met in 1843 while fighting pirates off the coast of Borneo.