Charles Anthoni Johnson was born in Berrow Vicarage,
Burnham,
Somerset, in England, to the Reverend Francis Charles and Emma Frances Johnson, née Brooke. Emma was the younger sister of
James Brooke, the first Rajah of Sarawak. In addition to Charles, Francis and Emma had other children: Captain
John Brooke Johnson (1823–1868) (later Brooke), Mary Anna Johnson (b. 1824), Harriet Helena Johnson (b. 1826), Charlotte Frances Johnson (b. 1828), Captain (William) Frederic Johnson (b. 1830), Emma Lucy Johnson (b. 1832), Margaret Henrietta Johnson (1834–1845), Georgianna Brooke Johnson (1836–1854), James Stuart Johnson (1839–1840), and Henry Stuart Johnson (b. 1841). Brooke was educated at
Crewkerne Grammar School and entered the
Royal Navy. He entered the service of his uncle James, the first
Rajah of Sarawak, in 1852, took his name, and began as Resident at the
Lundu station in the
Raj of Sarawak. In the 1857 rebellion against the White Rajah, Charles Brooke helped his uncle put down the rebellion led by
Liu Shan Bang with his force composed of
Ibans and local
Bidayuh tribes. It is noted that Brooke's Iban forces pursued the remaining rebels to
Bau, where they killed the 3,000 villagers including women, children and the elderly in a massacre. In 1865, James named Charles as his successor. Brooke married
Margaret Alice Lili de Windt at
Highworth,
Wiltshire, on 28 October 1869; she was raised to the title of
Ranee of Sarawak with the style of Her Highness on the same day. They had six children, three of whom
survived infancy: • Dayang Ghita Brooke (1870–1873) • James Harry Brooke (1872–1873) • Charles Clayton Brooke (1872–1873) •
Charles Vyner Brooke,
Rajah of Sarawak (1874–1963) •
Bertram Willes Dayrell Brooke,
Tuan Muda (1876–1965) • Henry Keppel Brooke, Tuan Bongsu (1878–1927) Brooke's son Charles Vyner Brooke succeeded him as the third and last White Rajah. He had another son, Esca Brooke (1868–1951) from a previous marriage with a Malay woman known as Dayang Mastiah. Esca was sent to England at the age of six, cared for and later adopted by the Reverend William Daykin. Eventually, they moved to Canada. Esca married and had three children. Brooke lost an eye at some point in a riding accident, and allegedly replaced it with a false eye intended for a
stuffed albatross. Brooke resigned his commission in the Royal Navy in 1861 while encouraging trade and development and expanding the borders of his domain as the opportunities arose. In 1891 he established the
Sarawak Museum, the first museum in
Borneo. Brooke founded a boys' school in 1903, called the 'Government Lay School', where
Malays could be taught in the
Malay language. This was the forerunner of
SMK Green Road. By the time of his death, Britain had established a
protectorate over Sarawak, it had a
parliamentary government, a
railway, and oil had been discovered. All three White Rajahs are buried in
St Leonard's Church in the village of
Sheepstor on
Dartmoor, Devon. ==Honours==