James Brooke (1803–68)

Soldier and colonial governor. East India Company military service, 1819–30; served in the Burma War. At the invitation of Muda Hassim, uncle of the Malay sultan of Brunei and nominal ruler of Borneo, became raja of Sarawak, 1841. Commissioner and consul-general to the sultan and the independent chiefs in Borneo, 1847–55, and governor of the island of Labuan and its dependencies, 1847–52. Knighted, 1848.