Sylvia Leonora, Lady Brooke, White Ratuh Consort 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, the third and last of the

White Rajahs The White Rajahs of Sarawak were a hereditary monarchy of the Brooke family, who founded and ruled the Raj of Sarawak as a sovereign state, located on the northwest coast of the island of Borneo in Maritime Southeast Asia, from 1841 to 1946. Of ...

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 ...

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, London, Hyde Park to ...

Central London Central London is the innermost part of London, in England, spanning the City of London and several boroughs. Over time, a number of definitions have been used to define the scope of Central London for statistics, urban planning and local gove ...

, 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 Viscount Esher, William Brett, 1st Baron Esher, upon his r ...

, KCB. Her mother Eleanor was the third daughter of the Belgian politician and revolutionary

Sylvain Van de Weyer Jean-Sylvain Van de Weyer (19 January 1802 – 23 May 1874) was a Belgian politician who served as the Belgian Minister at the Court of St. James's, effectively the ambassador to the United Kingdom, and briefly, as the prime minister of Belg ...

and his wife Elizabeth, who was the

only child An only child is a person with no siblings, by birth or adoption. Overview Throughout history, only-children were relatively uncommon. From around the middle of the 20th century, birth rates and average family sizes fell sharply for a number of ...

of the great financier Joshua Bates of

Barings Bank Barings Bank was a British merchant bank based in London. It was 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 parish in

Berkshire Berkshire ( ; abbreviated ), officially the Royal County of Berkshire, is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Oxfordshire to the north, Buckinghamshire to the north-east, Greater London ...

. Her paternal grandmother Eugénie Meyer was French, born in

Lyon Lyon (Franco-Provençal: ''Liyon'') is a city in France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of the French Alps, southeast of Paris, north of Marseille, southwest of Geneva, Switzerland, north ...

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 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-to-be (from 1917) ruled a jungle kingdom on the northern side of

Borneo Borneo () is the List of islands by area, third-largest island in the world, with an area of , and population of 23,053,723 (2020 national censuses). Situated at the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, it is one of the Greater Sunda ...

with a population of 500,000, an ethnic mix of Chinese, Malays, and the

headhunting Headhunting is the practice of hunting a human and collecting the severed head after killing the victim. More portable body parts (such as ear, nose, or scalp) can be taken as trophies, instead. Headhunting was practiced in historic times ...

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. Vyner died in 1963. Brett was distraught that her eldest daughter, Leonora, under

Islamic law Sharia, Sharī'ah, Shari'a, or Shariah () is a body of religious law that forms a part of the Islamic tradition based on scriptures of Islam, particularly the Qur'an and hadith. In Islamic terminology ''sharīʿah'' refers to immutable, intan ...

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

heir apparent An heir apparent is a person who is first in the order of succession and cannot be displaced from inheriting by the birth of another person. A person who is first in the current order of succession but could be displaced by the birth of a more e ...

, 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 eligible to become rulers 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, 1900Declared death in absentia, presumed dead after March 24, 1939) was an American travel writing, travel writer and adventurer who, among numerous journeys, swam the length of the Panama Canal and paid the lowes ...

, 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 aviation history, pioneer in aviation, circumnavigating the globe with adventure writer Richard Halliburton in 1931, and co-founding Northrop Corpor ...

. 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). She also contributed short stories to publications such as John O'London's Weekly, for example "The Debt Collector", in the Summer Reading Number June 29, 1929. Fort Sylvia in Kapit, Malaysia, is named in her honour.

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, also known by its abbreviation RADA (), is a drama school in London, England, which provides vocational conservatoire training for theatre, film, television, and radio. It is based in Bloomsbury, Central Lond ...

educated singer and actress, wife of firstly Harry Roy (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)'',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 (1883–1977), known as Brett, went to the Slade School of Art 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 Lytt ...

(1893-1932) and Mark Gertler (1891–1939), and then with salon hostess Lady Ottoline Morrell (1873–1938) and the

Bloomsbury group The Bloomsbury Group was a group of associated British writers, intellectuals, philosophers and artists in the early 20th century. Among the people involved in the group were Virginia Woolf, John Maynard Keynes, E. M. Forster, Vanessa Bell, a ...

, living for a while at Garsington Manor. In 1924 she went to live on a mountain ranch near

Taos, New Mexico Taos () is a town in Taos County, New Mexico, 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 Santa Fe ...

, with D.H. Lawrence 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; Ottoline Morrell; and Paul Tanqueray, 1917 and 1932. {{DEFAULTSORT:Brooke, Sylvia 1885 births 1971 deaths English women writers English biographers Ranees of Sarawak English autobiographers People from Winkfield Brett, Sylvia Brett, Sylvia Recipients of the Order of the Star of Sarawak Wives of knights Sylvia