Sylvia Brett
Encyclopedia
Sylvia Leonora, Lady Brooke, Ranee of Sarawak, born The Hon. Sylvia Leonora Brett, (25 February 1885 - 11 November 1971), was the consort
to Vyner of Sarawak, last of the White Rajahs
.
, Central London
, the second daughter of Reginald Baliol Brett
, the 2nd Viscount Esher
, KCB. Her mother Eleanor was the third daughter of the Belgian
politician and revolutionary Sylvain Van de Weyer
and his wife Elizabeth, who was the only child
of the great financier Joshua Bates
of Barings Bank
. Sylvia grew up at the family home, Orchard Lea, at Cranbourne
in Winkfield
parish in Berkshire
. Her paternal grandmother, Eugenie Meyer, was thought to be an illegitimate daughter of Napoleon Bonaparte
.
Sylvia's early life was somewhat troubled; by the age of 12 she had made two attempts at suicide
, the first by eating rotten sardines, and the second by lying naked in the snow.
at St Peter's Church, Cranbourne
, Berkshire, just before her 26th birthday on 21 February 1911. They first met in 1909 when she joined an all-female choral orchestra, established by Vyner's mother. She first visited Sarawak in 1912, where her husband (from 1917) ruled a 40000 square miles (103,599.5 km²) jungle kingdom on the northern side of Borneo
with a population of 500,000, an ethnic mix of Chinese
, Malays, and the headhunting Dayak
. Sylvia was invested with the title of Ranee
of Sarawak 24 May 1917, Grand Master of The Most Illustrious Order of the Star of Sarawak (1 August 1941). Rajah Vyner died in 1963.
Sylvia was distraught that her daughter, Leonora, under Islamic law
, could not take the throne; as a result she hatched various plots to blacken the name of the heir apparent
, Anthony, the Rajah Muda
.
Richard Halliburton
, the celebrated adventurer, met her as he circumnavigated the globe in 1932 with his pilot, Moye Stephens. She became the first woman in Sarawak to fly when the pair gave her a flight in their biplane, the Flying Carpet. Halliburton narrates the visit in his book of the same name.
She was described by her brother as "a female Iago
", and by the Colonial Office
as "a dangerous woman, full of Machiavellian schemes to alter the succession, and spectacularly vulgar in her behaviour". She died in Tuffett Cottage, Sandy Lane, St James, Barbados
.
She was the author of eleven books, including "Sylvia of Sarawak" and "Queen of the Head-Hunters" (1970). Fort Sylvia
in Kapit
is named in her honour.
, also known as Brett (1883–1977), went to the Slade School of Art in 1910 and became friends with painter Mark Gertler (1891–1939), and then of salon hostess Lady Ottoline Morrell (1873–1938), living for a while at Garsington Manor
.
Queen consort
A queen consort is the wife of a reigning king. A queen consort usually shares her husband's rank and holds the feminine equivalent of the king's monarchical titles. Historically, queens consort do not share the king regnant's political and military powers. Most queens in history were queens consort...
to Vyner of Sarawak, last of the White Rajahs
White Rajahs
White Rajahs refers to a dynasty that founded and ruled the Kingdom of Sarawak from 1841 to 1946, namely the Brookes, who came originally from England. A Rajah is a monarch in the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia.-Rulers:...
.
Early life
Sylvia was born at No. 1, Tilney Street, Park LanePark Lane (road)
Park Lane is a major road in the City of Westminster, in Central London.-History:Originally a country lane running north-south along what is now the eastern boundary of Hyde Park, it became a fashionable residential address from the eighteenth century onwards, offering both views across Hyde Park...
, Central London
Central London
Central London is the innermost part of London, England. There is no official or commonly accepted definition of its area, but its characteristics are understood to include a high density built environment, high land values, an elevated daytime population and a concentration of regionally,...
, the second daughter of Reginald Baliol Brett
Reginald Brett, 2nd Viscount Esher
Reginald Baliol Brett, 2nd Viscount Esher, GCVO, KCB, PC, DL was a historian and Liberal politician in the United Kingdom.Brett was the son of William Baliol Brett, 1st Viscount Esher and Eugénie Mayer...
, the 2nd Viscount Esher
Viscount Esher
Viscount Esher, of Esher in the County of Surrey, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1897 for the prominent lawyer and judge William Brett, 1st Baron Esher, upon his retirement as Master of the Rolls. He had already been created Baron Esher, of Esher in the County of...
, KCB. Her mother Eleanor was the third daughter of the Belgian
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
politician and revolutionary Sylvain Van de Weyer
Sylvain Van de Weyer
Jean-Sylvain Van de Weyer was a Belgian politician, and then the Belgian Minister at the Court of St. James's, effectively the ambassador to the United Kingdom....
and his wife Elizabeth, who was the only child
Only child
An only child is a person with no siblings, either biological or adopted. In a family with multiple offspring, first-borns, may be briefly considered only children and have a similar early family environment, but the term only child is generally applied only to those individuals who never have...
of the great financier Joshua Bates
Joshua Bates (financier)
Joshua Bates was an international financier who divided his life between the United States and the United Kingdom.Bates was born in Commercial St., Weymouth, Massachusetts. Early in his career he worked for William Gray, owner of Gray's Wharf in Charlestown. A merchant and a banker, in 1828 Bates...
of Barings Bank
Barings Bank
Barings Bank was the oldest merchant bank in London until its collapse in 1995 after one of the bank's employees, Nick Leeson, lost £827 million due to speculative investing, primarily in futures contracts, at the bank's Singapore office.-History:-1762–1890:Barings Bank was founded in 1762 as the...
. Sylvia grew up at the family home, Orchard Lea, at Cranbourne
Cranbourne, Berkshire
Cranbourne is a village in Berkshire, England, within the civil parish of Winkfield in the borough of Bracknell Forest.The settlement lies near to Windsor Great Park and Legoland Windsor, and is approximately south-west of Windsor. Neither Cranbourne Chase nor Cranbourne Lodge, which it surrounds,...
in Winkfield
Winkfield
Winkfield is a village and civil parish in the Bracknell Forest unitary authority of Berkshire, England.-Geography:According to the 2001 census, the parish had a population of 15,271...
parish in Berkshire
Berkshire
Berkshire is a historic county in the South of England. It is also often referred to as the Royal County of Berkshire because of the presence of the royal residence of Windsor Castle in the county; this usage, which dates to the 19th century at least, was recognised by the Queen in 1957, and...
. Her paternal grandmother, Eugenie Meyer, was thought to be an illegitimate daughter of Napoleon Bonaparte
Napoleon I of France
Napoleon Bonaparte was a French military and political leader during the latter stages of the French Revolution.As Napoleon I, he was Emperor of the French from 1804 to 1815...
.
Sylvia's early life was somewhat troubled; by the age of 12 she had made two attempts at suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
, the first by eating rotten sardines, and the second by lying naked in the snow.
Ranee of Sarawak
She married His Highness Rajah Vyner of SarawakSarawak
Sarawak is one of two Malaysian states on the island of Borneo. Known as Bumi Kenyalang , Sarawak is situated on the north-west of the island. It is the largest state in Malaysia followed by Sabah, the second largest state located to the North- East.The administrative capital is Kuching, which...
at St Peter's Church, Cranbourne
Cranbourne, Berkshire
Cranbourne is a village in Berkshire, England, within the civil parish of Winkfield in the borough of Bracknell Forest.The settlement lies near to Windsor Great Park and Legoland Windsor, and is approximately south-west of Windsor. Neither Cranbourne Chase nor Cranbourne Lodge, which it surrounds,...
, Berkshire, just before her 26th birthday on 21 February 1911. They first met in 1909 when she joined an all-female choral orchestra, established by Vyner's mother. She first visited Sarawak in 1912, where her husband (from 1917) ruled a 40000 square miles (103,599.5 km²) jungle kingdom on the northern side of Borneo
Borneo
Borneo is the third largest island in the world and is located north of Java Island, Indonesia, at the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia....
with a population of 500,000, an ethnic mix of Chinese
Overseas Chinese
Overseas Chinese are people of Chinese birth or descent who live outside the Greater China Area . People of partial Chinese ancestry living outside the Greater China Area may also consider themselves Overseas Chinese....
, Malays, and the headhunting Dayak
Dayak people
The Dayak or Dyak are the native people of Borneo. It is a loose term for over 200 riverine and hill-dwelling ethnic subgroups, located principally in the interior of Borneo, each with its own dialect, customs, laws, territory and culture, although common distinguishing traits are readily...
. Sylvia was invested with the title of Ranee
Raja
Raja is an Indian term for a monarch, or princely ruler of the Kshatriya varna...
of Sarawak 24 May 1917, Grand Master of The Most Illustrious Order of the Star of Sarawak (1 August 1941). Rajah Vyner died in 1963.
Sylvia was distraught that her daughter, Leonora, under Islamic law
Sharia
Sharia law, is the moral code and religious law of Islam. Sharia is derived from two primary sources of Islamic law: the precepts set forth in the Quran, and the example set by the Islamic prophet Muhammad in the Sunnah. Fiqh jurisprudence interprets and extends the application of sharia to...
, could not take the throne; as a result she hatched various plots to blacken the name of the heir apparent
Heir apparent
An heir apparent or heiress apparent is a person who is first in line of succession and cannot be displaced from inheriting, except by a change in the rules of succession....
, Anthony, the Rajah Muda
Anthony Walter Dayrell Brooke
Anthony Walter Dayrell Brooke, , was appointed His Highness the Rajah Muda of Sarawak on 25 August 1937, and succeeded to the title of Rajah in 1963 on the death of his uncle, Rajah Vyner of Sarawak the third and last of the ruling White Rajahs.Brooke was the son of Bertram,...
.
Richard Halliburton
Richard Halliburton
Richard Halliburton was an American traveler, adventurer, and author. Best known today for having swum the length of the Panama Canal and paying the lowest toll in its history—thirty-six cents—Halliburton was headline news for most of his brief career...
, the celebrated adventurer, met her as he circumnavigated the globe in 1932 with his pilot, Moye Stephens. She became the first woman in Sarawak to fly when the pair gave her a flight in their biplane, the Flying Carpet. Halliburton narrates the visit in his book of the same name.
She was described by her brother as "a female Iago
Iago
Iago is a fictional character in Shakespeare's Othello . The character's source is traced to Giovanni Battista Giraldi Cinthio's tale "Un Capitano Moro" in Gli Hecatommithi . There, the character is simply "the ensign". Iago is a soldier and Othello's ancient . He is the husband of Emilia,...
", and by the Colonial Office
Colonial Office
Colonial Office is the government agency which serves to oversee and supervise their colony* Colonial Office - The British Government department* Office of Insular Affairs - the American government agency* Reichskolonialamt - the German Colonial Office...
as "a dangerous woman, full of Machiavellian schemes to alter the succession, and spectacularly vulgar in her behaviour". She died in Tuffett Cottage, Sandy Lane, St James, Barbados
Barbados
Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles. It is in length and as much as in width, amounting to . It is situated in the western area of the North Atlantic and 100 kilometres east of the Windward Islands and the Caribbean Sea; therein, it is about east of the islands of Saint...
.
She was the author of eleven books, including "Sylvia of Sarawak" and "Queen of the Head-Hunters" (1970). Fort Sylvia
Fort Sylvia
Fort Sylvia is a historical monument located in Kapit town in the state of Sarawak, Malaysia. Built in 1880, it was renamed after Rani Sylvia Brooke, wife of Rajah Charles Vyner Brooke, in 1925...
in Kapit
Kapit
The town of Kapit is the capital of the Kapit District in the Kapit Division, Sarawak, east Malaysia on the south bank of the Rajang River. The district comprises 15,595.6 square kilometers and as of 2002 has a population of 60,200....
is named in her honour.
Children
She was survived by three daughters:- Dayang Leonora Margaret, Countess of Inchcape, wife of 2nd Earl of InchcapeEarl of InchcapeEarl of Inchcape is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1929 for the Scottish shipping magnate and public servant James Mackay, 1st Viscount Inchcape. He was Chairman of the P and O Steam Navigation Company...
(by whom she had a son, Lord TanlawSimon Mackay, Baron TanlawSimon Brooke Mackay, Baron Tanlaw is a crossbench member of the House of Lords.- Family and business interests:Tanlaw is the third son of the 2nd Earl of Inchcape...
, and a daughter), and later wife of Colonel Francis Parker Tompkins (by whom she had a son). - Dayang Elizabeth, a RADARadaRada is the term for "council" or "assembly"borrowed by Polish from the Low Franconian "Rad" and later passed into the Czech, Ukrainian, and Belarusian languages....
educated singer and actress, wife of firstly Harry RoyHarry RoyHarry Roy was a British dance band leader and clarinet player from the 1920s until the 1960s.-Life and career:...
(with whom she had a son,David Roy and daughter, Roberta Simpson), secondly, Richard Vidmer until her death. - Dayang Nancy Valerie, married, firstly, Robert Gregory, an American wrestler, secondly, Senor José Pepi Cabarro, a SpanishSpainSpain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
businessman, thirdly, ScotScotlandScotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
, Andrew Aitken Macnair, and fourthly, Memery Whyatt. She died in FloridaFloridaFlorida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
and had one son, Stewart Macnair (b. 1952).
Sister
Sylvia's elder sister Dorothy BrettDorothy Brett
Dorothy Brett British-American painter, remembered as much for her social life as for her art. Born into an aristocratic British family she associated with such notables and Virginia Woolf, John Huxley, Gilbert Cannan, and George Bernard Shaw. Her sister Sylvia became Ranee of Sarawak.In 1924...
, also known as Brett (1883–1977), went to the Slade School of Art in 1910 and became friends with painter Mark Gertler (1891–1939), and then of salon hostess Lady Ottoline Morrell (1873–1938), living for a while at Garsington Manor
Garsington Manor
Garsington Manor, in the village of Garsington, near Oxford, England, is a Tudor building, best known as the former home of Lady Ottoline Morrell, the Bloomsbury Group socialite...
.
Ancestors
| Headhunter Sylvie | 2nd Viscount Esher Reginald Brett, 2nd Viscount Esher Reginald Baliol Brett, 2nd Viscount Esher, GCVO, KCB, PC, DL was a historian and Liberal politician in the United Kingdom.Brett was the son of William Baliol Brett, 1st Viscount Esher and Eugénie Mayer... (1852–1930) |
1st Viscount Esher (1815–99) |
Rev. Joseph Brett LLB (1790–1852) |
Dora, daughter of George Best of Chilston, Lenham Lenham Lenham is a market village in Kent situated on the southern edge of the North Downs, halfway between Maidstone and Ashford. The picturesque square in the village has two public houses , a couple of restaurants, and a tea-room.... , Kent |
|||
Eugenie Mayer (Lyons 1814-1904) |
Either- Louis Mayer or Napoleon |
||
Fanny, Mrs Mayer |
|||
| Eleanor van de Weyer, DJSt.J, (d.1940) | Jean-Sylvain van de Weyer Sylvain Van de Weyer Jean-Sylvain Van de Weyer was a Belgian politician, and then the Belgian Minister at the Court of St. James's, effectively the ambassador to the United Kingdom.... |
Josse-Alexandre van de Weyer (1769–1838) |
|
Francoise-Martine Goubau |
|||
| Elizabeth Bates | Joshua Bates Joshua Bates (financier) Joshua Bates was an international financier who divided his life between the United States and the United Kingdom.Bates was born in Commercial St., Weymouth, Massachusetts. Early in his career he worked for William Gray, owner of Gray's Wharf in Charlestown. A merchant and a banker, in 1828 Bates... (1788–1864) |
||
Lucretia Augusta Sturgis |
Further reading
- Maurice V. Brett (ed.), Journals and Letters of Reginald Viscount Esher, Vol I: 1870-1903, London, 1934.
- Margaret Brooke, My Life in Sarawak, 1913.
- Sylvia of Sarawak: an autobiography, 1936.
- Sylvia, Lady Brooke, Queen of the Headhunters, 1970.
- Philip Eade, Sylvia, Queen Of The Headhunters: An Outrageous Englishwoman And Her Lost Kingdom, (352 pages), Weidenfeld & NicolsonWeidenfeld & NicolsonWeidenfeld & Nicolson Ltd is a British publisher of fiction and reference books. It is a division of the Orion Publishing Group.-History:...
, 2007. Lynne TrussLynne TrussLynne Truss is an English writer and journalist, best known for her popular book Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation.-Early life:...
, reviewed Eade's book in The Sunday TimesThe Sunday TimesThe Sunday Times is a British Sunday newspaper.The Sunday Times may also refer to:*The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times...
, 17 June 2007. - Sean Hignett, Brett: From Bloomsbury to New Mexico, A Biography, London, Hodder & StoughtonHodder & StoughtonHodder & Stoughton is a British publishing house, now an imprint of Hachette.-History:The firm has its origins in the 1840s, with Matthew Hodder's employment, aged fourteen, with Messrs Jackson and Walford, the official publisher for the Congregational Union...
, 1984. - R.H.W. Reece, The Name of Brooke: The End of White Rajah Rule in Sarawak, 1993.
- S. Runciman, The White Rajahs: A History of Sarawak from 1841 to 1946, Cambridge University PressCambridge University PressCambridge University Press is the publishing business of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by Henry VIII in 1534, it is the world's oldest publishing house, and the second largest university press in the world...
, 1960
External links
- An essay on Silvia Brooke in The Daily Telegraph (UK), Saturday 2 June 2007, by Philip Eade.
- National Portrait Gallery, London Photographic images of the Brookes by BassanoAlexander BassanoAlexander Bassano was the leading high society portrait photographer in Victorian London.He was the second youngest child of Clemente Bassano, originally a fishmonger of Cranbourne Street, later an oilman and Italian warehouseman of Jermyn Street, London. He opened his first studio in 1850 in...
; Ottoline Morrell; and Paul TanquerayPaul TanquerayPaul Tanqueray was an English photographer.Tanqueray was born in Littlehampton, Sussex. Tanqueray first became interested in the theatre and photography when he was at Tonbridge School and won the school's Photographic prize...
, 1917 and 1932.