Anthony Walter Dayrell Brooke, British heir to the Sarawakan throne, died he was , 98.

Anthony Walter Dayrell Brooke, was appointed His Highness the Rajah Muda of Sarawak (heir apparent; Malay: Yang Amat Mulia Tuan Rajah Muda 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 , died he was , 98.
Brooke was the son of Bertram, Tuan Muda of Sarawak and Gladys Palmer, daughter of Sir Walter Palmer, and heiress to part of the Huntley & Palmers biscuit fortune.^[1]

(10 December 1912 – 2 March 2011)

Background

Brooke grew up in England and was educated at Eton College, Trinity College, Cambridge and the School of African and Oriental Studies, University of London.^[2] Throughout the 1930s he served the Sarawak civil service in various sectors, including the Land and Registry Department, and as a magistrate.^[2]
He enlisted in the British Army as a private soldier in November 1941 and served during World War II; between 1941 and 1944 as a Lieutenant in the Intelligence Corps on the staff of the SAC SEAC at Kandy, Ceylon. He was Special Commissioner for Sarawak in the UK from 1944-1945.
Appointed Heir Apparent with the title of Rajah Muda of Sarawak on 25 August 1937, Brooke was granted the personal style of His Highness. Having been responsible for administering Sarawak between 1939 and 1940 in the absence of the Rajah, he was deprived of his styles and titles on 17 January 1940, then dismissed and expelled from the state in September 1941, following a dispute with his uncle, Rajah Vyner, over his marriage to a commoner, Kathleen Hudden, sister of a Sarawak government official.^[3][1]
Brooke was restored as Rajah Muda after consultations between his uncle and father in 1944. He was, however, deprived of his titles again on 12 October 1945.^[2]
Rajah Vyner ceded Sarawak to the British Colonial Office, in 1946 in exchange for a sizeable pension for him and his three daughters. Anthony Brooke, the designated heir, initially opposed cession to the Crown along with a majority of the native members of the Council Negri (Parliament). A five-year campaign in Sarawak followed, aimed at revoking the country's new colonial status, in part directed by Brooke from his house in Singapore.^[1] In 1948, after the second British Governor of Sarawak, Duncan Stewart was assassinated by the Malay Sarawakian nationalist Rosli Dhobie, Brooke came under scrunity by MI5, the British intelligence agency, who wanted to "get wind of any other plots he and his associates might be hatching". No evidence was found that he had known of the assassination plot.^[1]
In 1951, Brooke renounced any claim to the title, although he remained, according to some^[who?], the pretender to the throne.

Personal life

Brooke was married firstly, in Rangoon, Burma to Kathleen Mary Hudden (1907–1981),^[2] who became the Ranee Muda of Sarawak. They had three children:

• James Bertram Lionel Brooke (born 1940), married firstly Victoria Holdsworth (b. 1949), she would later marry Sir Paul Getty, married second Karen Mary Lappin (b. 1955). He has two sons by his second wife and currently lives in Edinburgh:
  • Laurence Nicholas Brooke (born 1983), at London, UK, Educated Bruntsfield School, and The Erasmus Smith School Dublin.
  • Jason Desmond Anthony Brooke (born 1985), at London, UK, Educated Bruntsfield School, and The Erasmus Smith School, Dublin. Received a BA (English Literature) from University College Dublin, and an MPhil (International Conflict Studies) from Trinity College Dublin. Elected Captain of the Boats, University College Dublin Boat Club 2007/2008. Brooke is a Life Member of the Sarawak Association, Chairman of the Brooke Heritage Trust, and a Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society.

• Angela Carole Brooke (1942-c.1983),
• Celia Margaret Brooke (born 1944), married first to Pirzada Murshidzada David Ray Harper Inayat Khan (son of Inayat Khan), married secondly Marcel Captier of Rennes le Chateau. She had a daughter by her first husband:
  • Sura-un-Nissa Dorée des Anges Brooke Harper (b. 1971), she has one son;
    • Leandro Brooke Harper (b. 1992).^[2]

They divorced in 1965. Anthony Brooke lived for various periods in London, Sussex and at Findhorn community in Scotland. In 1982 he married a fellow peace activist; Brigitte (Gita) Keller (born in 1931 in Copenhagen to the Reverend Paul H. Lange) founded Operation Peace Through Unity (OPTU) in Sweden in 1975.^[2] From 1987 until Brooke's death in 2011 they lived together in Wanganui, New Zealand. Brooke was a traveller and lecturer, supporting various movements for peace and universal understanding.
Brooke died at his home in Wanganui, New Zealand on 2 March 2011 at the age of 98. Coincidentally, his death coincided with the anniversary of the deaths of 4 members of the Sarawak Anti-Cession Movement (Rosli Dhoby, Awang Ramli Amit, Bujang Suntong and Awang Ramli Amit) who were hanged at Kuching Central Prison on the same date in 1950.

Titles from birth

• Anthony Brooke, Esq. (10 December 1912 - 24 August 1937)
• H.H. The Rajah Muda of Sarawak (25 August 1937 - 16 January 1940)
• Anthony Brooke, Esq. (17 January 1940 - November 1941)
• Private Anthony Brooke (November 1941 - 16 January 1944)
• H.H. The Rajah Muda of Sarawak (17 January 1944 - 1944)
• Lieutenant H.H. The Rajah Muda of Sarawak (1944 - 12 October 1945)
• Lieutenant Anthony Brooke, titular Rajah Muda of Sarawak (12 October 1945 - February 1951)Renounced claim as heir apparent, 1951
• Titular H.H. The Rajah of Sarawak (9 May 1963–2 March 2011) He does not exercise any claim, although he succeeded to the right in 1963, upon Vyner's death

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