The BHR database brings together primary sources on the history of British North Borneo - present-day Sabah, Malaysia. The collections span Colonial Office records, cession treaties, the colonial press, maps, photographs, administrative reports, and local histories, covering roughly 1819 to the present.
~7,000 files · 1877–1963
The largest collection in the database. British Colonial Office correspondence, dispatches, and administrative files covering the Chartered Company period (1877–1963) - from the original cession of territory through to Malayan independence and the formation of Malaysia.
Key series include CO 874 (British North Borneo Chartered Company), CO 947 (Cobbold Commission, 1962), FCO 141 (decolonisation files), FO 371 (Foreign Office political correspondence), and DO 169 (Commonwealth Relations).
Series held: CO 874 · CO 947 Cobbold Commission · FCO 141 Decolonisation · FO 371 Foreign Office · DO 169 Commonwealth Relations · CAB 21 Cabinet Papers
~1,000 files · 1841–2023
The constitutional and legal bedrock of Sabah’s history. This collection holds the original cession deeds by which Brunei and Sulu sultans granted territory to the British North Borneo Chartered Company in the 1870s–1890s, written in Jawi (Malay Arabic script) and English.
Also includes the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63) and associated documents, the James Brooke treaties, Continental Shelf boundary agreements, and the extensive Sulu Claim file - the ongoing Philippine territorial claim over Sabah traced through diplomatic correspondence and legal submissions.
Series held: Cession Deeds 1877–1903 · Malaysia Agreement 1963 · Sulu Claim · CO 1030 Sulu · James Brooke Treaties · Separation of Singapore
~160 files · 1881–1941
The British North Borneo Herald (BNBH, 1881–1941) is the primary press record of the Chartered Company period - an invaluable weekly source for economic conditions, government announcements, land concessions, and the lives of European and Asian residents in Jesselton, Sandakan, and the interior.
Individual issues have been scanned at high resolution. OCR processing to make the text searchable is in progress. The collection will eventually span the full run from the first 1881 issue through the Japanese occupation in 1941.
~635 files · 1878–1963
North Borneo Annual Reports (NBAR) and British North Borneo Chartered Company administrative reports. Issued yearly, these are the official record of colonial administration - population figures, revenue, public works, agriculture, labour, and district-level conditions across the territory.
Taken together the NBAR series forms one of the most detailed longitudinal records of any British Borneo territory, tracing the colony from the Chartered Company’s first years through the post-war Crown Colony period.
~4,000 files · 1870s–1980s
Visual and cartographic records of British North Borneo. The photographic holdings include the G.C. Woolley albums - a remarkable sequence of early 20th-century images documenting people, buildings, and landscapes across the territory - and the Roy Knowles collection covering the post-war period.
The map series ranges from early exploratory charts to administrative boundary maps. Postage stamps from the Chartered Company and Crown Colony periods are also held, providing a compact visual history of the territory’s changing imagery and rulers.
Series held: Woolley Albums (15 vols) · Roy Knowles Collection · John Longfield Collection · Borneo Maps · BNBCC Stamps
~620 files · 1878–2023
Secondary literature and academic journals covering Borneo history, Southeast Asian studies, and related fields. The Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (JMBRAS) and Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (JSBRAS) are particularly rich sources, with articles on North Borneo history dating from the 1870s.
The Geological Survey of British Borneo (GSBR) bulletins and memoirs provide a detailed record of the territory’s physical geography and natural resources.
~100 files · 1884–2024
District and community-level histories documenting places and events that rarely appear in colonial records. Includes research on Sembulan, Mengkabong, Putatan, Sandakan, and Jesselton, as well as Malay-language papers on local figures, uprisings, and settlements.
The Sejarah series covers the Mat Salleh rebellion, early Kadazan-Dusun oral histories, the Perjanjian Damai (peace treaties between Company and local chiefs), and biographical accounts of figures such as Panglima Lohari and Dato Kilan. Many of these materials exist nowhere else in digitised form.
~43 files · 1963–1966
Records relating to the Indonesia-Malaysia Konfrontasi (1963–1966) - Indonesia’s armed opposition to the formation of Malaysia. The PC1258 Sarjan series documents British and Malaysian military operations along the Borneo border during this period.
Growing · 1942–1945
Materials relating to the Sandakan POW camp and the 1945 Death Marches - one of the worst atrocities suffered by Allied prisoners in the Pacific War, in which fewer than ten of approximately 2,500 prisoners survived. The collection includes testimonies, post-war investigations, and historical accounts.