NORTH BORNEO (SABAH)
See also ROMAN CATHOLIC HIERARCHY IN NORTH BORNEO ANGLICAN CHURCH IN NORTH BORNEO
NORTH BORNEO 1848 - 1881
The whole territory of present day Sabah was part of the Sultanate of Brunei until 1704, when Sultan Nasruddin (r. 1690 - 1710 /16.. - 1710) ceded (or was forced to cede ?) the lands East of Marudu Bay to the Sultanate of Sulu. The authority of both states over the area gradually declined and the end of the 18th century it had become largely nominal and the local Islamic chiefs (of Malay, Bajau, ... origin) and indigenous communities (Dusun, Murut,...) were in fact as good as independent. The first Westerners to show some interest for the area were the British who were twice briefly (1763 - 1775 and 1803 - 1805) in control of the Balambangan islands. The major attempt to establish some Western presence in the area before 1881 was however made by Charles Lee Moses and the American Trading Company of Borneo. MOSES, THE AMERICAN TRADING COMPANY OF BORNEO AND THEIR SUCCESSORS 1865 Jul : The Sultan of Brunei granted Charles Lee Moses, the US Consul to Brunei, a personal ten-year lease of a large part of North Brunei in exchange of a yearly tribute of $ 9,500. Soon afterwards Moses sold all his rights to a Hong Kong based US trader Joseph W. Torrey. Oct : Torrey and some associates formed the American Trading Company of Borneo. Nov : The American Trading Company of Borneo establised a planting and trading settlement - named Ellena - on the mouth of the Kimanis river. At the same time the Sultan van Bruunei granted Torrey the title of Rajah of Ambong and Marudu and Supreme Ruler of the whole of North Borneo. The colonization attempt failed however and Torrey and others soon left. By the end of 1866 the settlement was completely abandoned. Then the whole affair was forgotten until 1875. 1875 Jan : Torrey sold all his rights to the German adventurer Gustavus, Baron von Overbeck (1831 - 1...) , who did a failed attempt to renew the cessions made by the Sultan of Brunei to Moses. 1877 Dec 29 : von Overbeck - now joined by the British businessman Alfred Dent (1842 - 1...) - made a second attempt to obtain a cession. The Sultan of Brunei now granted him a lease of the northern part of Brunei in exchange for a yearly rent of $ 15,000. At the same time he granted von Overbeck the title of Maharaja of Sabah and Rajah of Gaya and Sandakan. 1878 Jan 22 : In an last attempt to obtain British help against the advancing Spanish, the Sultan of Sulu granted von Overbeck all Sulu possessions on Borneo in exchange of a yearly rent of $ 5,000. At the same time he granted von Overbeck the title of Datu Bendahara and Rajah of Sandakan Feb : After having created an embryonic administration, von Overbeck and Dent returned to Europe. (1) (1) Superintendent and Chief Manager W. H. Read (at Singapore) Resident on the East Coast William Burgess Pryer (at Sandakan) 1... - 1899 Residents on the West Coast William Prettyman (at Tempasuk) H. L. Leicester (at Papar)
NORTH BORNEO UNDER BRITISH RULE
STATE OF NORTH BORNEO 1881 - 1946
After their return to Europe Dent and von Overbeck started looking for financial support for their enterprise. Having failed to interest Austria-Hungary and Italy for the project, von Overbeck sold his part in the venture to Dent (1880) who, in turn, transferred all his rights to a British North Borneo Provisional Association Ltd. he had founded (1881). Having gained political support, this Association was soon afterwards transformed into the chartered British North Borneo Company (BNBC) having full sovereign powers over all areas acquired by Dent and von Overbeck. (2) In 1888 North Borneo became a protectorate of the United Kingdom and from 1941 to 1945 it was occupied by Japan (s.b.). (2) At that moment effective rule of the BNBC over the so-called "State of North Borneo" was limited to some coasal settlements, the most umportant being Sandakan, the future capital. In the course of the following years the territory was however largely expanded by : - the systematical annexation of parts of Brunei (1884 - 1903) resulting in some tension with Sarawak. [see Brunei (to be added) for more] - the annexation of islands part of the Sulu Sultanate, not included in the cession of 1878 (Muliangin, Muliangin Kechil, Malawali, Tegabu, etc, etc) Although the Sultan later (1903) retroactively included these islands in the said cession of 1878, his Spanish - and later US - overlords never recognized these unilateral annexations and claimed the islands as part of the Philippines. Pending a definitive solution, the US government agreed in 1907 with the continuation of the administration of the contested islands by the BNBC. By a convention of 1930 all islands - except six of the Turtle islands and Mangsee island - were recognized as being possessions of the BNBC, which for the timr being, continued also to administer the islands assigned to the US. - the annexation of parts of the interior leading to some conflicts with the Netherlands, especially in the Tawau area on the eastern coast claimed by both countries until 1912, when it was partitioned. Compared to what happened in Sarawak, there was little resistance against the instauration of British rule. The major revolt was that of the Bajau leader Mat Salah (18.. - 1900) [and of his three successors Mat Sator (18.. - 1900), Kamunta (18.. - 1902) and Langkap (18.. - 1903) that lasted from ca 1895 to 1903. The last major revolt was that of the Murut under Antanum in 1915 __________________________________________________________________________________BRITISH REPRESENTATIVES
British Agents 1888 - 1941 The Governors of the Straits Settlements __________________________________________________________________________________CHIEF ADMINISTRATORS
HEADS OF THE BNBC IN LONDON Head of the British North Borneo Provisional Association Ltd. 1881 - 1882 Sir Rutherford Alcock 1809 - 1897 Chairmen of the British North Borneo Company 1882 - 1893 Sir Rutherford Alcock s.a. 1893 - 1903 Richard Biddulph Martin 1838 - 1916 1903 - 1909 Sir Charles James Jessel 1860 - 1928 1909 - 1910 William Clark Cowie 18.. - 1910 Presidents of the British North Borneo Company 1910 - 1926 Sir Joseph West Ridgeway 1844 - 1930 1926 - 1946 Sir Neill Malcolm 1869 - 1953 CHIEF ADMINISTRATORS IN NORTH BORNEO Governors 1881 - 1887 William Hood Treacher 1849 - 1919 1887 - 1888 W. M. Crocker 1888 - 1895 Charles Vandelleur Creagh 1842 - 1917 1895 - 1900 Leicester Paul Beaufort 1853 - 1926 1900 - 1901 Hugh Charles Clifford 1866 - 1941 1901 - 1903 Ernest Woodford Birch 1857 - 1929 1904 - 1911 Edward Peregrine Gueritz 1855 - 1938 1911 - 1912 Francis Robert Ellis 1849 - 1915 1912 James Scott Mason 1853 - 1912 1913 - 1915 Cecil William Chase Parr 18.. - 1943 1915 - 1922 Aylmer Cavendish Pearson 1876 - 1926 1922 - 1925 Sir William Henry Rycroft 1861 - 1925 1925 - 1926 Aylmer Cavendish Pearson (2x) 1926 - 1929 John Lisseter Humphreys 18.. - 1929 1930 - 1933 Arthur Frederick Richards 1885 - 1978 1934 - 1937 Douglas James Jardine 1888 - 1946 1937 - 1942 Charles Robert Smith, arrested by the Japanese 1887 - 1959 __________________________________________________________________________________JAPANESE AND ALLIED COMMANDERS AND ADMINISTRATORS 1941 - 1946
JAPANESE COMMANDERS AND ADMINISTRATORS OF BORUNEO KITA (NORTH BORNEO) On Dec 16 1941 Japanese forces occupied Miri on the coast of Sarawak. From there they rapidly conquered the rest of Sarawak, Brunei (Jan 06 1942) and the State of North Borneo (occupation of Sandakan on Jan 18 1942). The conquered territories formed a single administrative unit named Boruneo Kita (North Borneo), with headquerters first at Kuching until the Chinese revolt in Oct 1943 (3) and then at Jesselton. (in Japanese family names are given first) COMMANDERS Commanding Officer of the Kawaguchi Detachment 1941 - 1942 BrigGen. Kawaguchi Kiyotake 1892 - 1961 Commanding Officer of the 4th Independent Mixed Brigade 1942 BrigGen. Tsuda Yoshitake Commanding Officers of the Borneo Defence Army 1942 LtGen. Maeda Toshitomi 1... - 1942 1942 - 1944 Gen. Yamawaki Masataka 1884 - Commanding Officers of the 37th Army 1944 Gen. Yamawaki Masataka s.a. 1944 - 1945 LtGen. Baba Masao, surrendered to the Australian Army on Sep 10 1945 1... - 1947 CIVIL ADMINISTRATORS Head of the Civil Administration 1942 - 1945 ... Local Administrators In May 1942 occupied British Borneo was divided into 4 Shu (4) : - Seikai-shu covering the western part of North Borneo Governors 1942 1942 - 1945 Kuji Manabu 1945 MajGen. Kuroda Shigeru - Kuching-shu covering the southern part of Sarawak Governors [... ?] 194. - 1945 Tokuno Sotojiro - Miri-shu covering the northern part of Sarawak and Brunei Governors [...?] 194. - 1945 Kodama Roichi - Tokai-shu covering the eastern part of North Borneo Governors 1942 - 1945 ... (3) Japanese presence was opposed by remnants of the British armies, by Chinese nationalists and by indigenous communities. Since early 1945 their activities were coordinated by men of the Australian Services Reconnaissance Department - SRD. The major action against the Japanese was the revolt of Oct 10 1943 (hence "Double 10 revolt") by the Oversea Chinese Defence Association - Mount Kinabala Salvation Guerlla Band [leader : Lt. Albert Kwok Fen Nan (1... - 1944)], resulting in a very brief liberation of Jesselton, the capital of Seikai-shu. (4) Shu = provinces (sometimes also translated as states) A 5th Shu - Sibu covering central Sarawak - seems to have been added in Jul. It was however no longer mentioned in 1945 and one presumes that it was abolished after the Chinese revolt in North Borneo in Oct 1943 and its territory divided between Kuching and Miri. From May to Jul 1942 Pontianak on the westcoast of Netherlends Borneo was also briefly a Shu of Boruneo Kita. ALLIED COMMANDERS AND ADMINISTRATORS OF BRITISH BORNEO The liberation of Japanese ruled British Borneo started on Jun 10 1945 when Brunei and the island of Labuan were occupied by Australian forces. It ended after the Japanese surrender and the occupation of British North Borneo in Oct. (5) Like under the Japanese the liberated territories formed a single administrative unit. COMMANDER Commanding Officer of the 9th Australian Division The 9th Autralian Division was part of the I Australian Corps [Comm. Off. : LtGen. Sir Leslie James Morshead "Ming the Merciless" (1889-1959)], entrusted with the liberation of the whole island of Borneo by the Allied Supreme Command (6) 1945 - 1946 Brig. Sir Thomas Charles Eastick 1900 - 1988 CIVIL ADMINISTRATORS In 1943 a Civil Affairs Unit for Borneo - intended to administer liberated Borneo - was formed within the British Colonial Office. As the unit was however not yet fully operational at the moment of the liberation, the Australian command set up its own civil administration for Borneo, the British Borneo Civil Affairs Unit. When the British Civil Affairs Unit at last arrived in Borneo, both units briefly co-existed until they were eventually merged. Head of the British Borneo Civil Affairs Unit (BBCAU) 1945 Col. A. A. Conlon Chief Civil Affairs Officer for Borneo and Head of the 50th Civil Affairs Unit (50 CAU) 1944 - 1945 Brig. Charles Frederick Cunningham Macaskie (a former Government Secretary of Sarawak ), from 1943 to 1944 Chief Civil Affairs Officer for Borneo and Head of the Borneo Planning Unit (BPU)in the colonial office 1888 - 1969 Chief Civil Affairs Officer for Borneo and Head of the British Borneo Civil Affairs Unit (BBCAU) 1945 - 1946 Brig. Charles Frederick Cunningham Macaskie s.a. Local Administrators After the defeat of the Fujino Force in Nov, BBCAU divided British Borneo into six divisions : (the Commanding Officers are those in office in Nov. Some possibly had successors until Jan 1946) - Bruunei-Labuan Division covering Brunei and the island of Labuan Commanding Officer : WingComm. K. E. H. Kay - Jesselton Divison covering the western part of the State of North Borneo Commanding Officer : LtCol. R. G. P. N. Combe - Kuching Division covering Western Sarawak commanding Officer : Maj. W. P. N. L. Ditmas - Miri Division covering Northern Sarawak Commanding Officer : LtCol. John Russell Black 1908 - 1988 - Sandakan Division covering the eastern part of the State of North Borneo Commanding Officer : LtCol. H. M. Tasker - Sibu Division covering Central Sarawak Commanding Officer : LtCol. J. K. McCarthy In Jan 1946 British Borneo was transferred from Australian to British military rule and became part of the South East Asia Command (SEAC). COMMANDER Commanding Officer of the 32nd Indian Infantry Brigade 1946 Brig. Edward Cecil James Woodford 1901 - 1988 CIVIL ADMINISTRATORS Chief Civil Affairs Officer for Borneo and Head of the British Military Administration (British Borneo) - BMA (BB) 1946 Brig. Charles Frederick Cunningham Macaskie s.a. Local Administrators The six divisions mentioned above were replaced by two Civil Affairs Areas : - North Borneo Civil Affairs Area covering Brunei, Labuan and the State of North Borneo. Commanding Officer : Col. R. G. P. N. Combe s.a. - Sarawak Civil Affairs Area covering Sarawak Commanding Officer : Col. H. H. Goss The end of military rule in 1946 Apr 15 : Brooke rule restored in Sarawak May 30 : North Borneo Civil Affairs Area abolished. Its three territories placed under the direct authority of the CCAO. Jul 06 : Brunei returned to the British colonial authorities. Jul 15 : End of military rule in Labuan and North Borneo. At the same time the two were merged into the new colony of British North Borneo. (5) Japanese forces in British Borneo formally surrendered on Sep 10. A small force - named "Fujino Force" after its commander Capt. Fujino - resisted however in the interior until Nov 08. (6) The I Australian Corps was initially part of the South West Pacific Area (SWPA) Command. Later it became a separate command of the Australian Military Force (AMF)
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