Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri to our Muslim friends as they celebrate with loved ones the breaking of the fast.
Here, in traditional Malay attire, the Dayang Muda Gladys, who converted to Islam in 1932 and adopted the new name Khair un-nisa Sarawak.
Gladys led an extraordinary life. The only daughter of Sir Walter and Lady Palmer, Gladys grew up amongst an eclectic group of writers and Pre-Raphaelite artists who adopted her as their muse. She counted Oscar Wilde, John Ruskin and George Meredith among her closest family friends and was painted by Burne-Jones and Dicksee.
She would later meet the Tuan Muda of Sarawak, Bertram Brooke, at the Ranee Margaret's Grey Friars Orchestra and the couple would marry and have three daughters and a son, Anthony. Very much the favourite daughter-in-law of Rajah Charles, Gladys felt a deep connection to Sarawak, later playing an important role behind the scenes in the resistance to colonisation in 1946, supporting her son Anthony and travelling to join the Anti-Cessionists in Kuching in 1947.
She died just 5 years later, expressing in her Will her wish to be buried in Sarawak according to Muslim rites.
