Dictionary of National Biography, 1927 supplement/Brooke, Charles Anthony Johnson
BROOKE, Sir CHARLES ANTHONY JOHNSON (1829-1917), second raja of Sarawak, was born at Berrow, Somerset, 3 June 1829, being the second son of the Rev. Francis Charles Johnson, vicar of White Lackington, by his wife, Emma Frances Brooke, sister of the first raja, Sir James Brooke [q.v.]. From the grammar school at Crewkerne he entered the royal navy in 1842, and after ten years, spent mostly afloat, resigned his commission and joined Sir James Brooke, who in 1841 had assumed the government of Sarawak and the title of raja.
For more than twelve years Charles Johnson lived amongst the head-hunting tribes, the erstwhile pirates of Sekrang and Sarebas. By instinct a leader of men, his high courage and physical activity quickly won him the respect and attachment of this warlike people. The Chinese insurrection of 1857 was a test of the stability of the raja’s rule. It afforded a striking proof of loyalty on the part of his native subjects, and the timely arrival at Kuching of Charles Johnson with the Dayaks, who had readily rallied to his call, brought about a speedy suppression of the rebellion. During the latter part of his uncle’s reign, Charles Johnson acted as heir-apparent, and much administrative responsibility passed into his hands. On the death of the raja in 1868 he succeeded to the title, and added to his own the surname of Brooke.
Progress and development marked the reign of the second raja. He built surely and well on the foundation laid by his uncle, abolishing slavery, and devoting his energies to the advancement of agriculture and education. In 1888 he was created G.C.M.G., and by treaty with Great Britain secured protection against foreign aggression and full recognition of the internal independence of Sarawak. The rebuilding of Kuching, the construction of roads, waterworks, wireless installations, and a railway were further achievements which helped to lift the country from poverty and primitive savagery to the prosperous level of a modern state. Although he occupied the position of an untrammelled despot, his sole ambition was the well-being of his subjects. For nearly seventy years he laboured on their behalf, and the little nation thus built up stands as a remarkable monument to his memory.
Leaving Sarawak in 1916, he died at his English home, Chesterton House, Cirencester, 17 May 1917, and was buried beside the first raja at Sheepstor, Devonshire. He married in 1869 Margaret Lili, daughter of Clayton de Windt, of Blunsdon Hall, Highworth, Wiltshire, by whom he had five sons and one daughter; he was succeeded as raja by his eldest surviving son, Charles Vyner Brooke.
[Charles Brooke, Ten Years in Sarawak, 1866; Alleyne Ireland, The Far Eastern Tropics, 1905; S. Baring Gould and C. A. Bampfylde, A History of Sarawak, 1909; correspondence and personal knowledge, 1875-1917.]