End Of An Era: The Borneo Reminiscences of C.F.C. Macaskie, C.M.G.

Charles Macaskie was one of North Borneo’s most successful colonial officials. Arriving from England as a Cadet in 1910, he served briefly at Tambunan and Papar before embarking on a career that took him into almost every area of administration, culminating in his appointment as Chief Justice in 1934 and Deputy Governor in 1936. Luckily avoiding imprisonment by the Japanese, he spent the first part of the war in Australia before serving in the Borneo Planning Unit in Londin and after liberation as Chief Civil Affairs Officer for Borneo at Labuan. After the war, he headed the War Damages Commission for Borneo at Jesselton before retiring to become an apple farmer at Stanthorpe in Queensland. In 1946 he had married Doris Cole Adams whose husband, Bernard, died in BAtu Lintang prison camp, Kuching, only weeks before liberation. Thanks to Macaskie’s retirement appointment as visiting British Judge, they were able to spend more time in the New Hebrides and other parts of the Pacific. In his memoirs, Macaskie reveals himself as a dedicated colonial administrator with a good sense of humour and a talent for diplomacy. This was to stand him in good stead during the difficult days in Australia in early 1945 when Colonel A.A. (‘Alf’) Conlon was attempting to use the British Borneo Civil Affairs Unit (BBCAU) as a means of securing Australian control over the Borneo territories under the United Nations.