British North Borneo Papers

Identity Statement

Reference code(s)	: GB 0102 MS 283792
Held at	: School of Oriental and African Studies   Click here to find out how to view this collection at http://www.soas.ac.uk/Archives/home.html ›
Full title	: British North Borneo Papers
Date(s)	: Created 1824-1940s
Level of description	: Collection (fonds)
Extent	: 27 boxes
Name of creator(s)	: Gueritz | Edward Peregrine | 1855-1935 | colonial administrator British North Borneo (Chartered) Company

Context

Administrative/Biographical history:

The British North Borneo (Chartered) Company was formed in 1881 and from 1882 administered the territory of North Borneo, the present-day Malaysian state of Sabah. The Company ruled the territory until the end of 1941, when the Japanese occupation ended Company rule. After the war, in 1946, the Company surrendered the territory to the British Crown and North Borneo became a British colony until 1963, when the territory became part of Malaysia. The Company was dissolved in 1953.

The territory was administered by a Governor, a nominated Legislative Council and a Civil Service, but the final seat of authority was the Court of Directors of the Company, which sat in London. The Company, under the Charter, was the Government of the territory and had to maintain a civil administration. But the Company was also mindful of its shareholders, and promoted the territory as a source of timber, forest products and mineral wealth, and publicised the territory's potential for growing plantation crops such as rubber and coconut.

Edward Peregrine Gueritz was Governor of British North Borneo, 1904-1911.

Further reading: K G Tregonning, Under Chartered Company Rule (North Borneo 1881-1946) (University of Malaya Press, 1958).

Content

Scope and content/abstract:

Papers, 1824-1940s, relating to British North Borneo, principally collected or written by E P Gueritz, and comprising off-prints, pamphlets, reports, including those of the British North Borneo Company, 1893-1935 (incomplete series), press cuttings, and miscellaneous other papers.

Access & Use

Language/scripts of material:
English

System of arrangement:

Conditions governing access:

Unrestricted.

Conditions governing reproduction:

No publication without written permission. Apply to archivist in the first instance.

Finding aids:

Unpublished handlist.

Archival Information

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition:

Purchased in June 1971.

Allied Materials

Related material:

The School of Oriental and African Studies also holds papers of Ifor Ball Powell, including material on British North Borneo (Ref: PP MS 26).

The Public Record Office, Kew, Surrey, holds correspondence, financial records, deeds, agreements and leases, 1865-1952, of the British North Borneo Company (Ref: CO 874); register of correspondence, 1915-1941 (Ref: CO 777/1-4); register of out-letters, 1915-1926 (Ref: CO 778/1); rules for native courts in the interior, 1907-1941 (Ref: CO 966/1). A memorandum for British North Borneo employees relating to the keeping of geographical records is held at Department of Western Manuscripts, British Library (Ref: Add 46152 Lady Layard diaries). Materials relating to the postal service are held at the Post Office Archives.

National Register of Archives: Click here to view NRA record

Publication note:

Description Notes

Archivist's note:

Rules or conventions:

Date(s) of descriptions:
15 May 2000