Johore’s Playboy Sultan

In the first half of the 20th century, Nils Strandell was probably the most famous philatelist in Sweden. In 1948, he published a most entertaining book called In the World of Philately in which he told about his early beginnings in the hobby and then went on to tell about interesting stamp issues and a variety of events in the hobby. Also there was a chapter devoted to a selection of famous people depicted on postage stamps. One of these personalities was Sultan Sir Ibrahim, the ruler of the Malayan state of Johore (today spelt Johor).

When I began taking a more serious interest in stamps in the 1960s, I remember borrowing Strandell’s book on several occasions.

I read about Sultan Sir Ibrahim with great interest and decided to assemble a small collection of the stamps depicting this gentleman.

The sultan’s complete name was Ibrahim Iskandar Al-Masyhur ibni Abu Bakar but in Stanley Gibbons and other catalogues he is generally referred to as Sultan Sir Ibrahim. He was born in 1873 and when he passed away in London in 1959 he had been his country’s ruler for no less than 64 years.

His mother was Cecilia Catharina Lange, a woman of Danish and Chinese origin whom Ibrahim’s father had met somewhere in the East Indies.

The young Ibrahim was sent to England to be educated and he is generally described as an anglophile. When his father died in 1895, he ascended to the throne of Johore, a state which is located at the southern tip of the Malacca Peninsula.

In spite of his love of everything English, he had constant conflicts with the British advisors who had been sent to Malaya in order to remedy a rather chaotic financial situation. In 1914, Johore formally came under British protection.

Sir Ibrahim was no supporter of a united Malaya. In 1955, he celebrated his Diamond Jubilee and used the occasion to demand Johore’s withdrawal from the recently formed Malayan Federation. The speech was certainly not welcomed in the sultanate’s more nationalistic circles.

The sultan’s jubilee was commemorated on a stamp issued on November 1, 1955. It shows a somewhat elderly Sultan who had been depicted continuously on his country’s postage stamps since 1896.

Sir Ibrahim had married early and his first two wives were both Malayans. The children were educated in private schools in Britain. In the 1920s, Scotsman William Brockie Wilson was appointed as the sultan’s personal physician. He was married to Helen Bartholomew Wilson (1889-1978) who was also from Scotland. The marriage ended in divorce.

Back in England, Helen took care of the sultan’s children and she eventually became Sir Ibrahim’s third wife in 1930. The sultan showered his wife with precious stones and jewellery. In 1935, he prepared a very special gift for his wife – a commemorative postage stamp marking the 5th anniversary of their wedding. The issue created quite a stir both in the philatelic press and in the women’s magazines.

Unfortunately, the stamp didn’t help very much and the marriage ended in divorce in 1938. However, it seems that the couple continued to have good relations. Each year on Helen’s birthday, the Sultan gave her a beautiful emerald and he also remembered the wedding day with a magnificent diamond. Thanks to the Sultan’s generosity, Helen became a very rich woman with a huge and valuable jewel collection.

In 1938, when the divorce was announced, a British stamp magazine claimed that this was the only instance that a Scottish woman had been depicted on a postage stamp. Many readers wrote angry letters to the editor stating the Queen Elizabeth was of Scottish origin and she had been depicted on the 1937 coronation stamps.

In the 1930s, Sir Ibrahim spent a lot of time with a young lady called Lydia Cecilia Hall. She was a dancer and the recipient of numerous gifts from the Sultan. Perhaps his relation with the beautiful dancer was the main reason for the failure of his marriage?

In 1940, there was an impressive 8-cent bi-coloured stamp featuring the Sultan. I have been unable to locate any information as to the reason of the issue of this particular stamp. Perhaps it was planned to be the beginning of a new set of definitives which was thwarted by the looming World War II. Today this stamp is rather uncommon. During the war, Johore was occupied by the Japanese and Sultan Sir Ibrahim had huge problems in working with the Japanese military authorities.

After the divorce from Helen, the Sultan soon found a new partner. She was Marcella Mendl, a woman of Romanian origin. Marcella converted to Islam and she became his fourth wife (some sources claim that she was his sixth wife).

During his last years, the Sultan lived with his wife and daughter in a fiat in London. The couple frequently went to the theatre but most of the time Sir Ibrahim stayed at home in Grosvenor House watching TV.

Sir Ibrahim was his country’s 22nd ruler. He has often been described as a wasteful playboy who strongly opposed a free and independent Malaya. Others claim that he worked hard for a strong and prosperous Johore.

In a collection of Johore, Sultan Sir Ibrahim can be seen on most stamps. A rather youthful portrait of the Sultan remained in use well into the 1940s. The set of definitives issued in 1922 include denominations of $50, $100 and $500. In mint condition they are great rarities today. These high denominations were mainly used as revenue stamps.

In 1949, there was a set of definitives with a new portrait of Sultan Sir Ibrahim. He appears to be wearing a military uniform. I am sure that he was annoyed by the fact that the stamps had MALAYA at the top and JOHORE at the bottom.

Today Johor is one of the more important Malaysian states with a population of 3.4 million people. Johor Baharu is the capital city. More than half of Johor’s population is Malay with the Chinese being the largest minority.

Even after the creation of Malaysia, the individual states continue to release postage stamps albeit in a very limited way.