A few months ago I wrote a post about an Irishman who became a Buddhist monk in Burma in the early twentieth century, and who was known as U Dhammaloka. Recently I posted about a documentary that is being made about this man.
One of the things that is fascinating about the story of U Dhammaloka is the fact that he was more or less unknown by scholars until recently. Another thing that is interesting, however, is that it has now become quite easy to find (some of the limited) information about this person given that so many books and newspapers have been digitized.
Today I realized that there are probably other figures that are as fascinating as U Dhammaloka that many of us are not aware of, such as Gerald MacBryan.
MacBryan was born in Somerset, England. He joined the civil service in Sarawak in 1920, converted to Islam, married a Malay woman and made the pilgrimage to Mecca.
By the time World War II broke out, MacBryan had become a personal secretary for the Rajah of Sarawak, Vyner Brooke. MacBryan fled to Australia with Brooke when the Japanese occupied Sarawak, but then he tried to return, and this caused problems for him.
I came across a file about MacBryan in the Australian National Archives. This file contains a letter from Vyner Brooke in which Brooke pleads with the Australian authorities to clear MacBryan’s name.
The same file also contains a sort of biography of MacBryan in which it states that “He is described as tall, thin, shifty and unscrupulous, unwilling to look a person in the eye, and is said to be of such unstable character that it would not be fantastic to assume that he might have designs on being appointed by the Japanese as a quisling Rajah of Sarawak.”
It is difficult to determine if this is true, but several authors have claimed that MacBryan did want to create a caliphate based at Sarawak, with himself as caliph.
Meanwhile, The Straits Times (from Singapore) carried an article in 1937 about MacBryan’s Malay wife when she arrived in Singapore after spending a year in England. Apparently there was a novel that was published in 1937 about MacBryan’s pilgrimage to Mecca called Triumphant Pilgrimage: An English Muslim’s Journey from Sarawak to Mecca, so MacBryan and his wife were “famous” at that time, and The Straits Times referred to MacBryan’s wife by the name she was known by in the novel – “Munirah.”
The article claimed that “‘Munirah’s’ former shyness has disappeared. During the interview she spoke freely of her impressions, and without hesitation posed for the cameraman.
“Hair bobbed, wearing a two-peace costume, a white crepe-de-chine blouse, a small gold kris brooch, its only decoration, and a grey tweed skirt. Mrs. MacBryan declared enthusiastically, ‘I like England much better than Sarawak.’”
Ok, so in the 1930s there was an Englishman in Sarawak who converted to Islam, made the pilgrimage to Mecca and had dreams of creating a caliphate in the region, while his Muslim Malay wife got the latest British hairstyle and preferred England over Sarawak. . . that’s amazing!!
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‘Munirah’ was Sa’erah
Her parents were Dayak and Melanau. As MacBryan went progressively round the bend, she married a British policeman in Malaya and achieved her wish of emigrating to England as Mrs Sarah Cowans.
She actually became Mrs Saerah Walford – she was my mother and David Walford was my father.
Ann
I’m writing a short narrative about Gerard MacBryan to include in a brief history of Sarawk’s armd conflicts.and, of course, your mother’s name features in it.
I’m British by birth, an ex-army officer, but I now live in Ba’ Kelalan in Sarawak, married to a Lunbawang.
I’d love to have your comments on what I write.
Kim
haha!! Wonderful. I’m glad to know that this story has a “happy ending.” Thanks for informing me about this!
She is my great grandmother.
From the very little that I’ve seen, it looks to me like your great grandmother was a very interesting person. I always have a fondness for people who challenge “the norms,” and it’s even more impressive, I think, to see someone from Sarawak do that in the early twentieth century. I would have loved to have met your great grandmother!
She sounds like a very interesting woman. I wondered if my late grandmother knew her as my grandma’s first husband was Scottish & her older 3 sisters were all married to English & Scottish men around that era.
Great to know her as my greatgrandma…
I’m glad that you found her here. Thank you for sharing that information.
Jackie, Saerah has Son and a daughter name Ismail and Noriah, both of them already pass away, Ismail with 8 childrens and Noriah have 15 childrens, im one of ther great grandchild… my mum is Noriah’s eldest daughter… we live in Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia
That’s really interesting, Azmi. Thanks for sharing. I am originally from Kuching, living in US now. Have been reading a lot about history of the White Rajahs in Sarawak. Your great grandmother was mentioned in one of the books. Glad to learn she has many descendants in Sarawak.