Sarawak
Map of the Island of Borneo showing Sarawak, with manuscript annotation by CTC Grant. Private collection.
Sarawak is a country in the Island of Borneo. In 1842 the Sultan of Brunei ceded sovereignty of Sarawak to James Brooke in gratitude for his assistance in crushing a rebellion.
James Brooke became the first Rajah of Sarawak and was subsequently knighted. He and his two successors, Sir Charles and Sir Vyner Brooke, were known as the White Rajahs of Sarawak. James Brooke was the model for the hero in Joseph Conrad’s novel Lord Jim and is mentioned in Rudyard Kipling’s novel The Man Who Would Be King.
Three Kilgraston Grants joined Sir James Brooke in Sarawak: Charles, who subsequently became the third Laird, was persuaded to join the Rajah’s service at the age of 16; his sister, Annie, married the Rajah’s nephew and chosen heir, Brooke Brooke, and travelled to Kuching; and their younger brother, Alan, was sent to Sarawak at the age of 11. Annie died, and was buried, in Kuching.
Robert Hay, Charles’s brother-in-law, also served in Sarawak.