Sir Spenser Buckingham St. John (22 December 1825 – 3 January 1910) was British Consul in Brunei in the mid 19th century.

Early life

On 20 September 1827, Spenser was baptised at St Pancras Old Church.

Diplomatic career

In 1847 St John's father, the journalist James Augustus St. John, introduced him to

James Brooke James Brooke (29 April 1803 – 11 June 1868), was a British soldier and adventurer who founded the Raj of Sarawak in Borneo. He ruled as the first White Rajahs, White Rajah of Sarawak from 1841 until his death in 1868. Brooke was born and ra ...

. He went out to

Sarawak Sarawak ( , ) is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state of Malaysia. It is the largest among the 13 states, with an area almost equal to that of Peninsular Malaysia. Sarawak is located in East Malaysia in northwest Borneo, and is ...

the following year to become Brooke's private secretary and thus began his diplomatic career. He was British Consul General in

Brunei Brunei, officially Brunei Darussalam, is a country in Southeast Asia, situated on the northern coast of the island of Borneo. Apart from its coastline on the South China Sea, it is completely surrounded by the Malaysian state of Sarawak, with ...

from 1856 and in 1858 made two ascents of

Mount Kinabalu Mount Kinabalu ( Dusun: ''Gayo Ngaran'' or ''Nulu Nabalu'', ) is the highest mountain in Malaysia and Borneo. With a height of , it is the third-highest peak of an island on Earth, the 28th highest peak in Southeast Asia, and 20th most prom ...

with Hugh Low. One of the peaks of Mount Kinabalu, "St John's Peak" (4,091 m – 4 metres shorter than the summit, "Low's Peak"), is named in his honour. He wrote a book about his explorations in Borneo, ''Life in the Forests of the Far East'' (1862), and two biographies of James Brooke (1879 and 1899). In 1863 St John became British ''

chargé d'affaires A (), plural ''chargés d'affaires'', often shortened to ''chargé'' (French) and sometimes in colloquial English to ''charge-D'', is a diplomat who serves as an embassy's chief of mission in the absence of the ambassador. The term is Frenc ...

'' in

Haiti Haiti, officially the Republic of Haiti, is a country on the island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and south of the Bahamas. It occupies the western three-eighths of the island, which it shares with the Dominican ...

and in 1871 took up the same post in the

Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles of the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean. It shares a Maritime boundary, maritime border with Puerto Rico to the east and ...

. He was promoted to Minister in Haiti late in 1872, and was ''chargé d'affaires'' in Lima and Minister in Peru from 1874 to 1883; he was awarded the KCMG in 1881. While in Peru he made a collection of pottery which is now in the

British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...

. In 1884 St John published a memoir of his experiences in Haiti, ''Hayti: Or, The Black Republic'', which caused public outrage with its sensational tales of

cannibalism Cannibalism is the act of consuming another individual of the same species as food. Cannibalism is a common ecological interaction in the animal kingdom and has been recorded in more than 1,500 species. Human cannibalism is also well document ...

in the Vodou religion. He is also quoted as saying that "The History of the country aiti... is but a series of plots and revolutions followed by barbarous military executions." St John was Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Mexico from 1884 to 1893, and helped to restore relations between Britain and Mexico, which had been broken since the French intervention in Mexico. St John retired after serving as Minister to Sweden from 1893 to 1896; he was made GCMG in 1894.

Marriage and death

St John had a relationship with a Malay woman named Dayang Kamariah, with whom he had a son, Sulong, later baptised as Charles when he was 10. He later trained as a civil engineer, and worked in a government position in Perak. In 1899, at the age of 73, he married the 31-year old Mary Armstrong in Paris. They settled in Camberley, and he died on 3 January 1910.

Works

* ''Life in the Forests of the Far East'' (1862) * ''Hayti: or, The Black Republic'' (1884) * ''The life of Sir James Brooke : rajah of Sarawak : from his personal papers and correspondence'' (1879) * ''Rajah Brooke: the Englishman as ruler of an eastern state'' (1897) * ''The adventures of a naval officer '' (1905) nder pseudonym Charles Hunter* ''Essays on Shakespeare and his works'' (1908)

References

External links