Gerard MacBryan
Gerard Truman Magill MacBryan was a Scotsman who initially served as Rajah Charles Vyner Brooke's Private Secretary and curator at the Sarawak Museum, was notable for his involvement in the annexation of Raj of Sarawak by the British Crown and later meddled in Brunei's affairs, gaining the trust of Sultan Ahmad Tajuddin through connections made in Kuching. In her book Queen of the Headhunters, Sylvia Brett, the last Ranee of Sarawak, introduces MacBryan as "a young man who was destined to play a sinister part in the history of the Sarawak Raj."
After the Sultan's death on 4 June 1950, the succession to the Bruneian throne was seamlessly managed with British support for his brother Omar Ali Saifuddien III, but MacBryan, claiming to have been appointed political adviser by the late Sultan, attempted to assert himself in Brunei's affairs, only to be thwarted by British intervention. In mid-1950, MacBryan, posing as Ahmad Tajuddin's envoy, tried to negotiate with Standard Oil and alert the United States about perceived injustices in Brunei's treaties with Britain, while also claiming the Sultan's daughter had a right to the throne similar to British monarchs, but his claims were exposed as fraudulent by British officials led by Malcolm MacDonald, who then supported Omar Ali Saifuddien III to maintain good relations with Britain.
Early life
Born on 9 January 1902, in Wiltshire, Gerard Truman Magill MacBryan was the youngest of Eveline Ada Truman and Dr. Henry Crawford MacBryan's five sons. His father was an Irish physician who ran the first private mental health facility in England, located at Box, close to Bath. In the meantime, his mother died the moment he was born. He went to school at Burnham-on-Sea, where he was once charged with theft. Later, he enrolled at a naval training college, but he pretended to be colour-blind in order to pass his military entrance exams. His father's friend Henry Deshon encouraged him to apply for a cadetship in the Sarawak Service.Sarawak
Service to the White Rajahs
MacBryan joined the Straits Civil Service's Sarawak administration in 1920 when he was eighteen years old, but word soon got around about his unstable nature. Robert Payne and Sylvia Brett both kept notes on his strange behaviour; Sylvia related how he would have wild shooting sprees into the night because he would have hallucinations of attacks on his bungalow. The "madman" Payne referred to was MacBryan, who reportedly had manic episodes, including appearing naked at a party believing he was invisible, acting like a dog, and stealing from shops and alms-boxes.MacBryan spent the first decade of his career in Sarawak, serving as Rajah Charles Vyner Brooke's Private Secretary in the late 1920s. His first posting as a government cadet in Limbang in 1920 introduced him to the Bruneian Sultanate, where he built strong connections and gained insights into the Sultanate's inner workings. His fluency in Malay, including the noble court dialect, helped him navigate Brunei's aristocratic circles and understand the challenges of the declining Sultanate. He suffered from manic episodes, but he stayed in Sarawak because of his strong friendship with Brooke, who called him "wonderful, but nuts." Speaking Malay fluently and being well-liked by both Dayak and Malay people, he assisted in the negotiation of a peace treaty between the Kayans and Ibans in 1924. Realising his brilliance and aptitude, Brooke gave him the moniker "Baron" in honour of the eccentric Baron von Munchausen. According to historian Bob Reece, he was an accomplished politician who had an understanding of the Rajah's thinking. As such, Brooke found him to be beneficial in making judgments on his behalf.
In June of the following year, he went to witness the formal investiture of Sultan Muhammad Jamalul Alam II with the K.C.M.G. by Sir Laurence Guillemard, the Governor of the Straits Settlements at the time, along with F. F. Boult, the Resident of the Fifth Division. In order to finance the education of Sarawak's European officers' offspring, he convinced Brooke to establish the Rajah of Sarawak Fund in 1930 while he was in London for a Colonial Office Conference. His scheme was foiled, nevertheless, by the Colonial Office, which prepared a deed limiting benefits to children of pure European blood in all Colonial Services, not just the Sarawak Service.
However, MacBryan was later banned from the region for nearly ten years due to various misdemeanours. He attempted to return to Sarawak in 1935 when he married a Kuching Malay woman, Sa'erah binte Abdul Kadir, in Singapore using Islamic customs. He declared that he had made the hajj to Mecca, returning with the name Haji Abdul Rahman and wearing white Arabian robes that King Ibn Saud had supposedly given him. But the native datu fiercely objected to his being in Sarawak, so he and his wife had to depart for London. There, he gained experience as a stockbroker and went on to oversee his father's exclusive mental health facility close to Bath.
After persuading Brooke to grant him permission to return to Kuching in August 1940, MacBryan worked briefly at the Sarawak Museum before being reappointed as Private Secretary in January 1941. This job was a part of the compensation he received for helping to arrange a covert financial agreement between the Committee of Administration and the Rajah, which opened the door for Sarawak's written constitution to be adopted in March 1941. Additionally, he was instrumental in mediating the Sultan Ahmad Tajuddin's and his Pengiran
Negotiations and cession of Sarawak
Regarding Sarawak's authority over Limbang, MacBryan successfully negotiated settlements with the Sultan and a delegate of Limbang in February 1941. Subject to permission, the Sultan consented to collect $20,000 from Straits for previous sovereign rights and $1,000 each year for future rights. Pengiran Sabtu Kamaludin received a total of Straits $60,000 in exchange for the Limbang pengiranMacBryan worked with Australian Naval Intelligence during his wartime exile in Australia, suggesting a scheme to transport Indonesian and Malay students back to their homelands via submarine in order to obtain intelligence on the Japanese. But his British security background hindered him, and he was unable to get a job with General Douglas MacArthur. After the Rajah and MacBryan returned to Britain in 1943, he was instrumental in the final discussions with the Colonial Office that resulted in the Rajah's decision to hand over Sarawak's sovereignty to Britain in 1945. MacBryan, despite his dubious past and a British Military Intelligence dossier on him, was assigned the responsibility of obtaining the consent of Sarawak's Chinese and Malay authorities for the handover.
The most notable contribution to the history of Sarawak was made by MacBryan when Brooke sent him to negotiate Sarawak's handover to the British administration. After World War II, according to local historian Ho Ah Chon, he was assigned as Brooke's private secretary to convince prominent Datu in Kuching to sign letters endorsing whatever move Brooke saw appropriate "in the interest of Sarawak," even though the letters made no mention of cession. Unexpectedly arriving in Kuching in January 1946, MacBryan carried official documentation to validate Sarawak's cession to Britain through hastily scheduled meetings of the Supreme Council and Council Negri. Additionally, he gave out freshly produced banknotes, purportedly to make up for the datu's lost wages during the Japanese occupation, but in actuality to win their support for the Rajah's scheme. The Rajah's brother Bertram Brooke revealed this devious plan, and the Colonial Office was compelled to act in accordance with the constitution. This led to a tight vote in favour of cession on 15 May 1946, and the official annexation of Sarawak and the creation of the Crown Colony of Sarawak on July 1. The community leaders signed without understanding the full ramifications, only to discover afterwards that they had been duped. Enraged by the deceit, Datu Patinggi Abdillah gave back the $12,000 that had been offered as a bribe.
Sylvia claims that the cession might not have happened in July 1946 if MacBryan hadn't used force. Historian Bob Reece, however, cast doubt on this assertion, stating that while MacBryan distorted the views of Brooke's brothers, Bertram and Anthony, it is impossible to confirm if he employed coercion or deception. History textbooks for secondary schools in Malaysia continue to include MacBryan's use of deceit to obtain signatures that allowed Sarawak to be ceded to Britain as a crown colony on 1 July 1946, even in light of the controversy surrounding it.
Brunei
Mental struggles and influence in post-war Borneo
While in London in 1946 and early 1947, MacBryan suffered from serious mental health problems, including illusions of invisibility, which resulted in his theft arrest. He kept checking himself into psychiatric facilities in spite of his worsening health. He continued to counsel the Colonial Office about Borneo's future during this period, advocating that Brunei and Sarawak be united and that he might convince the Sultan to hand up Brunei to the Crown. He spent the next year in London, however there was some worry that he would go to Brunei to pursue this. After living in Johannesburg with his third wife, Frances, MacBryan returned to Sarawak on 30 April 1950, with the intention of reviving the Sarawak State Trust Fund for education. Initially, he had attempted to create the fund using the £1,000,000 of state monies that remained in Sarawak. The Colonial Office acknowledged this in March 1946, but in September 1949 it declared that the fund could not be created because it lacked a legal foundation.In discussions with prominent authorities like as Arthur Grattan-Bellew, Sarawak's Attorney-General, MacBryan defended his case vehemently, but they stuck to the Colonial Office's line. As asked in the Rajah's proclamation of 14 January 1946, they declined to provide the £1,000,000 from Sarawak's reserve monies to establish the Trust Fund. This rejection, which put an end to his plan he floated as a help for the youth of Sarawak, was a major blow and made his pre-existing mental health problems worse, which had previously resulted in hospital stays in Johannesburg.
During his stay in Kuching in May 1950, MacBryan earned the trust of Sultan Ahmad Tajuddin, leveraging a prior friendship facilitated through the Sultan's private secretary, Inche Hassan bin Kulap Mohamed. MacBryan successfully convinced the Sultan to appoint him as Political Advisor for issues outside Brunei and to assist in advocating for constitutional and financial rights in London. This appointment was sanctioned by Britain's Special High Commissioner, Malcolm MacDonald, as it adhered to the provisions of Brunei's 1905–1906 Supplementary Treaty with Britain. He summarised the Sultan's stance in his opinion as follows: