William Burgess Pryer

William Burgess Pryer (7 March 1843 in London, England; – 7 January 1899 in Suez, Egypt) was the first British Resident in North Borneo and the founder of the modern Sandakan.

Pryer and his wife met with Jose Rizal, the national hero of the Philippines, on their trip to Hong Kong sometime in 1892. Rizal shared his idea of a Filipino community in Sabah for those who were dispossessed of their lands in Calamba by the Dominicans. Pryer was receptive of the idea, and corresponded with Rizal to finalise the details of the lease. However, the Governor-General of the Philippines at that time, Eulogio Despujol, opposed the proposal.

William Burgess Pryer, whose death is announced at Port Said on January 7, was born on March 7, 1843. In his earlier days he was an enthusiastic collector of British Lepidoptera. About 1860 he went out to China in connection with the silk and tea house of his relatives Messrs. Thorne Bros., Shanghai, where he remained for twelve years, and devoted considerable attention to collecting the Lepidoptera, of which very little was then known. An account of an expedition he made to the wonderful Snowy Valley appeared in the 'Entomologist's Monthly Magazine,' vol. xiv. Among the results of his work in China was the discovery of many new species, which were described by Messrs. Butler, Moore, and others, and a few by himself in a paper in the 'Cistula Entomologiea,' vol. ii. The collection he formed there afterwards passed into the possession of Messrs. Salvin and Godman and the British Museum. After a short experience of business in London he started, in 1877, for North Borneo, and was one of the pioneers of the British North Borneo Company, which founded the new colony at Sandakan. He was appointed British Besident in 1878, and subsequently the British Consular Agent. During the first few years of his residence there, he formed considerable collections of both Lepidoptera and Coleoptera, and wrote several accounts of journeys he made into the interior. His increasing duties in connection with the development of the newly-acquired territory prevented him, however, from doing much in his favourite pursuit of entomology during the last few years. Owing to failing health, he decided to return to England on sick leave; and on the passage home more serious symptoms of his illness necessitated his detention at Port Said, where he uccumbed within a few weeks of his arrival. His genial and generous disposition made him many friends who will feel his loss ; and his remarkable tact and courage in dealing with the rebellious natives, among whom he proceeded on the occasion of several hostile outbreaks, practically unarmed, was a great factor in the success which has attended the extension of British rule over the large region of North Borneo. He was the elder brother of Mr. H. Pryer, well known in connection with Japanese Lepidoptera, who died in 1888; and was a corresponding member of the Zoological Society since 1880. — O. E. J.

William Burgess Pryer Memorial in Sandakan.

In honour for Pryer, a memorial in the form of a fountain stand in the town of Sandakan. An inscription on the monument says: