Query No. 16

"Upper Bidi"

I have a 4 cent stationery postcard, sent from (The handwriting is barely readable) what looks like: Bidi upper Sarawak, dated 17th of the 5th 1902, to Miss. E Byrde c/o Rev. R.A Byrde, Wideworthy Rectory, Honiton, Devon. Signed E W B?

Any information about him or "Upper Bidi" would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for anything you do.
Chris Long.

Answers

  1. I have looked in my "The Anglican Church in Borneo, 1848-1962", by the Revd Brian Taylor, to see if there is any mention of a Byrde serving in that diocese, but drew a blank.
    However, when I looked up "Bidi" in the index, I found, on page 151, the following:
    "Pastoral visits were made to the Asian and European (C)hristians in the Upper Sarawak goldfield and antimony workings, at Bau, Bidi, and Buso". This is in a section dealing with the church in the first decade of the 20th century.

    From 1901 (if not before) to 1904, the Governor of Sarawak was E.W.Birch - perhaps those were his initials? By 1903 Birch was married, but I can see no details of his wife's name.
    As a p.s. to my earlier emails, I think I ought to make a correction: I have been going Brian Taylor's book again, and I fear that I erred in suggesting that E.W. Birch was Governor of Sarawak: it would have been North Borneo. This, of course, might well make it unlikely that the initials EWB were those of the Governor of North Borneo (unless he was particularly interested in (a) gold, or (b) the lady to whom the postcard was addressed.
    David Hubbard
  2. There are five entries for Bidi in the SJ index. Have those references been checked?
    Raymond Price

    The references in question (which I should have checked) are 14/28, 20/20, 20/121, 40/111, 40/117.
    Unfortunately I have none of these Journals.
    Can someone else help? John Morgan
  3. E.Byrde was the daughter of R.A.Byrde who became vicar of Widworthy after he retired as headmaster of Allhallows School Honiton. Whilst he was headmaster (retired about 1902) many Byrdes attended the school - including my father- and I remember that one of them became a mining engineer and had or worked mines in Borneo. It will take me a little time to search through my records but when I do I will get in touch. Hope this helps. John Byrde


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