Sylvia Leonora, Lady Brooke, Ranee of Sarawak (born ''The Hon. Sylvia Leonora Brett'', 25 February 1885 – 11 November 1971), was an English aristocrat who became the

consort __NOTOC__ Consort may refer to: Music * "The Consort" (Rufus Wainwright song), from the 2000 album ''Poses'' * Consort of instruments, term for instrumental ensembles * Consort song (musical), a characteristic English song form, late 16th–earl ...

to Sir Charles Vyner de Windt Brooke, Rajah of

Sarawak Sarawak (; ) is a state of Malaysia. The largest among the 13 states, with an area almost equal to that of Peninsular Malaysia, Sarawak is located in northwest Borneo Island, and is bordered by the Malaysian state of Sabah to the northeast, ...

, the last of the

White Rajahs The White Rajahs were a dynastic monarchy of the British Brooke family, who founded and ruled the Raj of Sarawak, located on the north west coast of the island of Borneo, from 1841 to 1946. The first ruler was Briton James Brooke. As a reward ...

Early life

Brett was born at No. 1, Tilney Street,

Park Lane Park Lane is a dual carriageway road in the City of Westminster in Central London. It is part of the London Inner Ring Road and runs from Hyde Park Corner in the south to Marble Arch in the north. It separates Hyde Park to the west from ...

, Central London, the second daughter of Reginald Baliol Brett, the 2nd

Viscount Esher Viscount Esher, of Esher in the County of Surrey, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created on 11 November 1897 for the prominent lawyer and judge William Brett, 1st Baron Esher, upon his retirement as Master of the Rolls ...

, 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 An only child is a person with no siblings, by birth or adoption. Children who have half-siblings, step-siblings, or have never met their siblings, either living at the same house or at a different house—especially those who were born consider ...

of the great financier Joshua Bates of

Barings Bank Barings Bank was a British merchant bank based in London, and one of England's oldest merchant banks after Berenberg Bank, Barings' close collaborator and German representative. It was founded in 1762 by Francis Baring, a British-born member ...

. Sylvia grew up at the family home, Orchard Lea, at Cranbourne in

Winkfield Winkfield is a village and civil parish in the Bracknell Forest unitary authority of Berkshire, England. Geography According to the 2011 Census, the parish had a population of 14,998. The parish includes the hamlets of Winkfield, Maidens ...

parish in Berkshire. Her paternal grandmother Eugénie Meyer was French, born in

Lyon Lyon,, ; Occitan language, Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, third-largest city and Urban area (France), second-largest metropolitan area of F ...

s. Sylvia Brett grew up in a troubled household. She was ignored by her courtier father, who was far more interested in flirting with young men than being a parent. Sylvia and her sister Dot had to suffer starvation of affection, and she decided to "electrify the world" when she grew up.

Ranee of Sarawak

Brett married His Highness Rajah Vyner of

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."The girl who would be queen", The Daily Telegraph, 2/6/2007
/ref> She first visited Sarawak in 1912, where her husband (from 1917) ruled a jungle kingdom on the northern side of

Borneo Borneo (; id, Kalimantan) is the third-largest island in the world and the largest in Asia. At the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, in relation to major Indonesian islands, it is located north of Java, west of Sulawesi, and ea ...

with a population of 500,000, an ethnic mix of

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...

, Malays, and the headhunting Dayak. Brett was invested with the titles of Ranee of Sarawak on 24 May 1917 and Grand Master of The Most Illustrious Order of the Star of Sarawak on 1 August 1941. Rajah Vyner died in 1963. Brett was distraught that her eldest daughter, Leonora, under

Islamic law Sharia (; ar, شريعة, sharīʿa ) is a body of religious law that forms a part of the Islamic tradition. It is derived from the religious precepts of Islam and is based on the sacred scriptures of Islam, particularly the Quran and the ...

, could not take the throne; as a result she hatched various plots to blacken the name of the

heir apparent An heir apparent, often shortened to heir, is a person who is first in an order of succession and cannot be displaced from inheriting by the birth of another person; a person who is first in the order of succession but can be displaced by the b ...

, Anthony, the Rajah Muda. She was known for having Machiavellian machinations, which agitated the British Colonial Office. Brett always had designs on her husband's succession because her daughters, as women, were not able to become a ruler of Sarawak. "Her own brother described her as a “female Iago” because she was the family nuisance and great schemer."

Richard Halliburton Richard Halliburton (January 9, 1900 – presumed dead after March 24, 1939) was an American travel writer and adventurer who swam the length of the Panama Canal and paid the lowest toll in its history—36 cents in 1928. He disappeared at ...

, the celebrated adventurer, met her as he circumnavigated the globe in 1932 with his pilot,

Moye Stephens Moye Wicks Stephens (February 21, 1906 – 1995) was an American aviator and businessman. He was a pioneer in aviation, circumnavigating the globe with adventure writer Richard Halliburton in 1931, and co-founding Northrop Aircraft, Inc. Family ...

. She became the first woman in Sarawak to fly when the pair gave her a flight in their biplane, the ''Flying Carpet''. Halliburton narrates an account of the visit in his book of the same name. Sylvia Brett enjoyed dressing up in sarongs and exotic jewelry and decorated her London home with spears, totem poles. Brett was the author of eleven books, including "Sylvia of Sarawak" and "Queen of the Head-Hunters" (1970).

Fort Sylvia The Fort Sylvia ( ms, Kubu Sylvia) is a historical fort in Kapit, Sarawak, Malaysia. Built in 1880, it was renamed after Rani Sylvia Brooke, wife of Rajah Charles Vyner Brooke, in 1925. During the 1960s, the fort housed the District Office a ...

Kapit Kapit is a town and the capital of Kapit District in Kapit Division, Sarawak, Malaysia on the south bank of the Rajang River. The district comprises 15,595.6 square kilometres and as of 2020 has a population of 65,800. Kapit is accessible by ...

is named in her honour. She also contributed short stories to publications such as

John O'London's Weekly ''John O'London's Weekly'' was a weekly literary magazine that was published by George Newnes Ltd of London between 1919 and 1954. In 1960 it was briefly brought back into circulation (writer Peter Green's biography lists him as having been fi ...

, for example "The Debt Collector", in the Summer Reading Number June 29, 1929.

Children

Brett was survived by three daughters: * Dayang Leonora Margaret, Countess of Inchcape, wife of Kenneth Mackay, 2nd Earl of Inchcape (by whom she had a son, Lord Tanlaw, and a daughter), and later wife of Colonel Francis Parker Tompkins (by whom she had a son). * Dayang Elizabeth, a

RADA The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA; ) is a drama school in London, England, that provides vocational conservatoire training for theatre, film, television, and radio. It is based in the Bloomsbury area of Central London, close to the Se ...

educated singer and actress, wife of firstly

Harry Roy Harry Roy (12 January 1900 – 1 February 1971) was a British dance band leader and clarinet player from the 1920s to the 1960s. He performed several songs with suggestive lyrics, including " My Girl's Pussy" (1931), and " She Had to Go and Lose ...

(with whom she had a son, David Roy and daughter, Roberta Simpson), secondly, Richard Vidmer until her death. * Dayang Nancy Valerie, an actress, known for ''

The Charge of the Light Brigade (1936 film) ''The Charge of the Light Brigade'' is a 1936 American historical adventure film from Warner Bros., starring Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland. It was directed by Michael Curtiz and produced by Samuel Bischoff, with Hal B. Wallis as the execut ...

'',Princess Baba, at IMDB
/ref> 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.

Sister

Brett's elder sister

Dorothy Brett Hon. Dorothy Eugénie Brett (10 November 1883 – 27 August 1977) was an Anglo-American painter, remembered as much for her social life as for her art. Born into an aristocratic British family, she lived a sheltered early life. During her ...

(1883–1977), known as Brett, went to the

Slade School of Art The UCL Slade School of Fine Art (informally The Slade) is the art school of University College London (UCL) and is based in London, England. It has been ranked as the UK's top art and design educational institution. The school is organised as ...

in 1910 and became friends with painters

Dora Carrington Dora de Houghton Carrington (29 March 1893 – 11 March 1932), known generally as Carrington, was an English painter and decorative artist, remembered in part for her association with members of the Bloomsbury Group, especially the writer Lytton ...

(1893-1932) and Mark Gertler (1891–1939), and then with salon hostess Lady

Ottoline Morrell Lady Ottoline Violet Anne Morrell (16 June 1873 – 21 April 1938) was an English aristocrat and society hostess. Her patronage was influential in artistic and intellectual circles, where she befriended writers including Aldous Huxley, Siegfr ...

(1873–1938) and the Bloomsbury group, living for a while at

Garsington Manor Garsington Manor, in the village of Garsington, near Oxford, England, is a country house, dating from the 17th century. Its fame derives principally from its owner in the early 20th century, the "legendary Ottoline Morrell, who held court from 19 ...

. In 1924 she went to live on a mountain ranch near

Taos, New Mexico Taos is a town in Taos County in the north-central region of New Mexico in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Initially founded in 1615, it was intermittently occupied until its formal establishment in 1795 by Nuevo México Governor Fernando Ch ...

, with

D.H. Lawrence David Herbert Lawrence (11 September 1885 – 2 March 1930) was an English writer, novelist, poet and essayist. His works reflect on modernity, industrialization, sexuality, emotional health, vitality, spontaneity and instinct. His best-k ...

and his wife Frieda, partially fulfilling Lawrence's dream of establishing an artists' colony.

Ancestors

References

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 Bassano;

; and

Paul Tanqueray Paul Tanqueray (14 January 1905 – September 1991) was an English photographer. Biography Tanqueray was born in Littlehampton, Sussex. Tanqueray first became interested in the theatre and photography when he was at Tonbridge School (1920-1923) a ...

, 1917 and 1932. {{DEFAULTSORT:Brooke, Sylvia 1885 births 1971 deaths Raj of Sarawak English women writers English biographers History of Sarawak Sylvia Brooke English autobiographers People from Winkfield Sylvia Brooke Brett, Sylvia Brett, Sylvia Recipients of the Order of the Star of Sarawak Wives of knights