ABSTRACT
The new Sultan was born on 15 July 1946. At the time there was no expectation that he would succeed to the throne. His uncle, Sultan Ahmad Tajuddin, was in his early thirties and was expected to produce a male heir. Sultan Ahmad Tajuddin’s untimely death in 1950 and the succession of Sultan Omar Ali changed all that. Educated at first in the palace, the young prince was sent in 1955 to the Sultan Muhammad Jamalul Alam Malay Primary School in Brunei Town, where he mixed with other Bruneian children. In 1959, he and his younger brother, Mohamed, were sent to the Jalan Gurney School in Kuala Lumpur to be prepared for admission to the Victoria Institution, which they entered in January 1961. The Victoria Institution was regarded as the premier school of Malaya, but the sons of Malay royalty were normally sent to the Malay College at Kuala Kangsar. Prince Hassanal was shy and diffident. An average scholar, he made his mark in the Cadet Corps. Though he mixed with commoners and enjoyed no privileges within the school, he and his brother were, nevertheless, different. They stayed at the Brunei palace in Kuala Lumpur, were driven to school in a limousine, and were discreetly protected by a bodyguard at all times. Moreover, in a ceremony in Brunei on 14 August 1961, Hassanal was proclaimed Crown Prince. Yet the strict, fair English education, in a school where merit and not race or class was the distinguishing feature, was good preparation for responsibility. The dangers such responsibility might bring were brought home to both princes as they flew home for their holidays on 8 December 1962 and their aircraft was diverted to Kuching because of the revolt in Brunei (Chalfont, 1989: 56–68).
