Ludvig Verner Helms

Ludvig Verner Helms was born in Varde, Denmark, on April 14, 1825, the son of Rudolph Helms and his second wife Mathilde Augusta Fridsche. Rudolph Helms was an Apoteker (Pharmacist) in Varde. Helms was the thirteenth of sixteen children.[3]

In 1846 Helms left for Bali, sailing via the Cape and Singapore. He had letters of introduction to Mads Lange and worked for him until 1849. He went briefly to China, then to California in 1850, but ended up taking up an offer from some Singapore merchants to trade on their behalf in Sarawak, after a mission to Siam and Cambodia.[4]

In 1851 he took up residence in Sarawak and commenced trading mainly in antimony. In 1856, the Borneo Company was formed and Helms was engaged as its manager in Sarawak. During the Chinese Insurrection against Rajah Brooke in 1857, the insurgents proposed making Helms Rajah, but he was instrumental in their defeat. In 1858, he left for the UK, via Bali, to recover his health and negotiate better terms with the Borneo Company's directors in the UK.[5]

In London, in 1859, he married Anne Amelia Bruce, with whom he had 10 children (Eve Louisa Mathilda, b. 1861; Dora Helen b. 1862; Dagmar b. 1864; Hilda Constance b. 1865; Katharine Annie b. 1868; Mary Sibyl b. 1870; Vera Ewen, b. 1874; Vera, b. 1876; Harold Verner Bruce, b. 1877; Paul Victor, b. 1880).[6][7]

Helms engaged to return to Sarawak for the Borneo Company in 1860. Helms and his growing family stayed until 1872, when he returned to Europe via China, Japan, and California.[8] A lawsuit terminated his relationship with the Borneo Company.[9]

In 1878, he had a trip to Lapland to investigate the potential of re-opening old mines in the White Sea. He sailed from Copenhagen to the White Sea, and returned overland via Archangel and St. Petersburg. The mines proved unproductive and the venture was unsuccessful.[10]

In 1882, Helms had returned to London[11] and published Pioneering in the Far East and Journeys to California in 1849 and to the White Sea in 1878, a history of his adventures in Southeast Asia, Sarawak, and California. The book also attempted to impartially chronical the dispute between Rajah James Brooke and his nephew, John Brooke Johnson Brooke, which resulted in the disinheriting of the latter.[12] The book generally received good reviews, and is still in print today.[13][14]

Helms returned to Sarawak around 1890, where he prospected for various ores,[15] and was in Malaysia around 1899-1903, where he was involved in establishing the Temelong Hydraulic Tin Mining Company.[16] The mine failed in 1903,[17][18] and he eventually returned to London, where he stayed until he died in Hampstead on July 26, 1918.[19][20]