George Cathcart Woolley

George Cathcart Woolley (24 December 1876 – 6 December 1947) was a British colonial administrator in North Borneo (now Sabah) in the early part on the twentieth century. Woolley was also an ethnographer and an ardent collector, and the Woolley Collections of photographs, diaries and other artefacts, bequeathed to the State Government of Sabah, formed the nucleus of Sabah Museum when it was founded in 1965.

Woolley was born in Tyn-y-Celyn near Ruthin in North Wales. Woolley was the son of a clergyman, Rev. George Herbert Woolley the curate of St Matthew’s, Upper Clapton, Hackney in London, and his wife Sarah Woolley. He had seven sisters and three brothers, including the famous archaeologist Sir Leonard Woolley and Rev. Geoffrey Harold Woolley, the first Territorial Army officer to be awarded the Victoria Cross. Woolley was educated at Merchant Taylors School and Queen’s College, Oxford, graduating in 1899.

In 1901 he joined the Land Office of the North Borneo Chartered Company at Labuan, and he served in this office in various locations in North Borneo for many years. As part of his duties as Land Commissioner, he had to travel extensively in North Borneo to carry out land surveys and to solve land disputes. During these travels he developed a keen interest in the native people and their customs, especially the Muruts of the Interior. Over his lifetime he amassed a sizeable collection of artefacts, including a comprehensive collection of native weapons including Malay krises (also spelled as kerises). Woolley bequeathed some of these weapons to the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford, England, some of which were later acquired by Sabah Museum.

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