The Brookes had “holiday cottages” built for them. The first Rajah Brooke, James, had a cottage built for him on Mt. Peninjau which afforded him a magnificent view of the plain below. He enjoyed the pleasures of youths and young men. The most important was that of Rajah Muda Hassim’s younger brother, Pengiran Budrudeen, and Charles Grant, who, at the age of 16, was persuaded by the first Rajah to abandon his career in the military to live with him.

Before his first marriage to Ranee Margaret, Charles had lived with and was probably married to a Skrang Malay noblewoman, Dayang Mastiah with whom he had a son called Esca. Charles enjoyed relationships with a number of Iban gundiks, with at least one he had a son.

Vyner took particular delight in seducing the wives of European officials. Sylvia, who was well aware of Vyner extra – extramarital affairs, asked him to discard three, as a gold digger, a thundering bore and a nymphomaniac. Of others, she recalled:

They came in all shapes and sizes. There was one, she remembers, who had a mania for turning somersaults, presumably to show off her gorgeous legs. There was an opera singer at Ascot Races where she fainted over the rails. There was one who liked being made love over the back of a chair.

There was one in Sarawak whom Vyner used to meet in the churchyard. This seems to me to be irreverent, but he would say Where else can I go without a guard jumping up? 

There was another who lived in a bungalow close to the Astana. His footsteps wore a little path to the bungalow. There was yet another whom he met on board the ship. She had the lovely Madonna face, though she was far from being an angel.

The one I liked best of all was the young woman with a cheerful, roguish face. She came around our country house in England selling flags for some wartime charity, accompanied by her seven-year-old boy. Vyner was not very fond of children and this was a constant irritation to him.

As he grew older, his girls became younger. He did not seem to mind their immaturity and baby talk; he said he likes guiding their innocent footprints into the path of righteousness. Having read some of his letters to him, it seems to me that often he arrived on the scene too late for that.

Eric Mjobong served as curator of the Sarawak Museum from 1922-1924. His tenure was a short one because he found the morality of Kuching unacceptable. Robert Nichol, a former Catholic monk, observed the doctor calling down fire and brimstone on the city of sin, Kuching. He also railed against people who violated the sixth commandment, Thou shall not commit adultery.

Nichol continued, and the doctor continued that the whole service is living in mortal sin. He goes further, he shows that the pursuit of vice carries its own retribution, even in this life, as witnessed in the case of the Baram cadet, who, after two years of residence groaned “Ah! If you only knew what I have suffered from my three mistresses”.

“Vice triumphant destroys not merely the men but states, and the very functioning of the Sarawak government is imperilled by the abandoned morals of the officers.” he continues” The early mornings are devoted to sport, i.e. the bed chamber. They stagger into the Secretariat between 9-10 in the morning and leave at 11 for liquor. Thereafter, lunch and sleep, returning to the office at sometime after 2 p.m. and leave at 3:30 p.m.”

The Rajah commissioned a report called the “Report by Mr. M.J. Breen on the Conditions of Service in the Sarawak Civil Service”. The report states, “The Civil Servants look happier and more contented than their brethren elsewhere in Southeast Asia.”

Mr Breen offered candid oral reports to the Colonial Office on the states of administration. Mr. Breen tells me “There is only a crude form of administration and the financial situation is rudimentary and uninformed” He continues  “Eventually we shall have to bring pressure on the Rajah to recognize his responsibilities.”

Following the war, in 1946, according to L.D. Gammans, the conservative member of a delegation, was startled to discover Kuching’s only nightclub employed “hostesses to provide company for the European bachelors, also commenting on the strange and undignified sight at the nightclub of the Ranee of Sarawak dancing in a conga line of whores.

The bungalow at Segu located on Park Avenue (formally Pig Road) has an interesting history. The structure was built by William Tan, facing the River Segu. (now known as Sungei Giam) It was moved by Vyner Brooke to the present site where he could have liaisons with his girlfriend. Judith Heimann wrote the bungalow had a “glamorous, scandalous history “and was built to as a place of assignation for the last Brooke Rajah, a great womanizer”.

However, there are problems with her account. Benedict Sadin, the Iban scholar, said the bungalow had been the second Rajah’s bungalow on a rubber estate. Bárbara Harrisson, wife of the infamous Tom Harrisson, stated the bungalow was built in 1880. Robert Shelfors, curator of the Sarawak Museum, wrote on 5 May 1899 “We reached the government bungalow at Segu”.

The combination of architecture of Malay and English on the bungalow indicates it was built by the second Rajah Charles rather than the third Rajah Vyner according to the author John Walker. He states that it was only in the last decade of his reign that Charles began building in the exclusive English style.

Tom Harrisson, Curator of the Sarawak Museum, convinced his Kelabit wife, Sigang, to come to Kuching from Bario. He persuaded the government to allow the Museum to move the bungalow to its present site on a hill overlooking what was then called Pig Lane in 1947.

In the bungalow was a Honey Bear and tethered underneath was a Rhinoceros Hornbill. All the walls had shelves with enamel basins filled with tiny turtles, each with a number painted on the shell. Almost daily, someone from the Museum arrives to measure their growth. On the window was a tiny Pentailed Shrew with a foxy smell, very strong for such a small animal.

Catholic Bishop A.D. Galvin described the living room as a riot of colour and design, with books, papers and artwork from the various tribes scattered over the room. Kenyah and Punan who were staying with him, would wander in and out.

In June 1954, Harrisson returned from England and met the wife of a German forestry official. She returned to Germany in 1955, divorced her husband and married Harrisson. They set up a house in the bungalow.

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EDITORIAL

John Walker states, “From their home in Segu bungalow, the Harrissons formed a remarkable partnership, of central importance. Researched with the museum’s cooperation or under its auspices were seminal works by such scholars like Ida Nicolaisen, Clifford Sather, Robert Pringle, Peter Metcalf, Craig Lockart, Jerome Rousseau, Antonio Gurrerro, Benedict Sadin, Jayl Langub and Robert Blust.” There are two people on this list who have told me they disliked Harrisson. The Harrisson had nothing to do with these scholars. They would have come or/and researched without them because most were seeking a Ph.D. or other papers and Borneo and its people offered them a place to succeed. They were good scholars despite, rather than because of, the Harrissons.

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In 1958, Harrisson began to correspond with Professor George Kahin of Cornell. In exchange for students’ assistance in fieldwork, they were to prepare articles for the Sarawak Museum Journal. However, the articles prepared by them would appear under Harrisson’s name.

Robert Pringle, a Cornell graduate student and author of Rajahs and Rebels, had agreed to help Benedict Sandin with his book and only then would the Harrissons help out Pringle.

Upon Harrisson’s resignation, according to the author (Harrisson did not resign. He was not permitted to re-enter Sarawak by the government.) and departure from Sarawak, Bernard Sandin became the Curator of the Sarawak Museum and lived in the Segu Bungalow. Sandin stated the Segu bungalow has historical significance and, as such, should be preserved as a historical building…it can be considered a museum piece as it has many native designs painted on the walls and ceilings… I suggest it be converted into a museum rest house for museum guests, i.e. local informants from the Ulu and museum-sponsored research workers from abroad. The housing office disagreed and told the museum to return the building to the housing pool.

The Public Works Department, which was responsible for the maintenance of the building, apparently did not respond to requests to repair the roof of the annexe. The building became home to Dr Timothy Hatch, a Brit who worked for the Department of Agriculture, as well as British and Canadian volunteers.

Dr Hatch speculated that the reluctance to repair the building was due to the ill feelings the staff had retained towards Harrisson. The building was also deemed haunted by locals. Walker, who lived there in 2007 and others, have denied seeing any ghosts. 

The Heritage of the Segu Bungalow in Sarawak History Sarawak Museum Journal, December 2015 condensed with permission.

The author’s name is left out. You can find it in the Sarawak Museum Journal December 2015 or e-mail me at Sarawaktom@gmailcom