WCP494

[1]¹

Boddington House

Byfield

Telegrams

Byfield

Jan[uary] 9^th [19]12

My dear Sir

I see in the Westminster Gazette you have reached your 90^th year [;] allow me as the son of Cap^t[ain] Brooke²[,] late Rajah Muda & unjustly disinherited Rajah of Sarawak [,] to congratulate you. A friend of mine once told me he had been reading a book of yours in which you said you had remonstrated with Sir James Brooke³ on his treatment of my father & he promised[?] to let [2]⁴ me have the name of the book but he forgot it. By every moral right I should be the next heir!! There must be something in the Climate of that part of the East that gives long life[.] Sir Charles Brooke⁵ is 84 & strong & nearby Sir William Adamson⁶ is nearly if not quite 80 & you 90[.] I am 54 & as hard as nails[.] I have 10 children, a strong lot, my eldest boy is at Malvern⁷ & the Brooke comes out in him he as[?] [3]⁸ is head of his house & his housemaster swears by him!⁹ curiously enough he stands in nearly[?] the same relationship to Sir Stamford Raffles¹⁰ as I[?] do to Sir James ^Brooke11 his mother being I think a grandniece of that great man[.] The boy sh’ld develop into something useful.

I hope this wont bore you [.]

Again congratulating you on your 90^th birthday.¹²

Yours very[?] faithfully | Hope-Brooke¹³ [signature]