The Diaries of George C. Woolley. Volume 1: 1901–1907

George Cathcart Woolley (1876–1947) was one of the eleven children of a Church of England parson, and the elder brother of Sir Leonard Woolley, the archaeologist who became famous for his excavations in the Middle East. George was educated at the Merchant Taylors’ School in London, and Queens College, Oxford, where he read classics, graduating in 1899.

It is unclear exactly through what contacts he obtained employment with the Chartered Company of British North Borneo, which had administered the territory now known as Sabah from 1881 and was to continue until the Japanese occupation in January 1942. Woolley served the Chartered Company from his arrival in Sandakan on 10 June 1901, and kept a regular diary till 16 October 1945, at the end of World War II. Unfortunately the diaries covering the years 1927–40 have been lost, presumably in the war. Excerpts from the war diaries, covering the final period 1941–5 were published in the Sabah Society Journal, in 1971.

The diaries from 1901–26, in 12 notebooks, were bequeathed by Woolley to the North Borneo Government, together with a collection of photographs and artefacts. Initially they were stored at the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford, and returned to Sabah on the foundation of the Sabah Museum, in 1965. Various initiatives to publish them in their entirety since then foundered. All the more reason to welcome warmly the first in what promises to be a key document in the study of Sabah when it was administered by the Chartered Company.

The notebooks of 26 April 1901–14 June 1926 cover 2109 pages. This, the first volume published, covers approximately 590 of these pages, and suggests that another 3 volumes will be required for completion of the publication.

There are many motives for keeping a diary. At their most basic are those written as aide-memoires: to keep a record of activities undertaken and people met. Much of Woolley’s first volume falls into such a category. However the most successful diaries written for a later readership are those written either as a detailed frank, private personal record—Samuel Pepys, for instance, or those clearly written in a style and with content suitable for later publication. Among the most successful twentieth-century diarists are Harold Nicolson and James Lees-Milne. Both, while having access to people of influence of their time, observed acutely, yet at a slight angle to the world, significant developments, and drew vivid portraits, often in deliciously waspish terms of the great, good, and not so good who crossed their paths. It is clear from this volume of Woolley’s diaries that he was in close touch with the key figures of British North Borneo, yet stood a little apart from them, separated not least by his pronounced misogyny—for he was a confirmed bachelor, completely inured to the attentions of the girls of the ‘fishing fleet’, unmarried, and sent to the colonies to find husbands.

Much of this volume is given over to accounts of whom of his fellow BNB employees he entertained in his various Jesselton accommodations, generally with no indication of what was discussed. Similarly, much space is devoted to the frequent changes in the duties allocated to BNB employees, and their and his fluctuating health. The risk of death in service was so great that all employees were required to sign a will upon first appointment to the company. Despite this, the company’s employees led energetic lives, and Woolley records on most fine days afternoon walks, multiracial football games in which he participated, and rides, with frequent falls, on wayward, half-wild Tempassuk ponies. Letters received from and sent home are dutifully recorded.

Of much more historical interest are comments on his relations with the two Governors spanning this period. E. W. Birch was the son of J. W. W. Birch, murdered in Perak in 1875. Woolley got on well with Birch and, like most others...