J. M. Gullick

Gullick was an extremely prolific writer and continued to publish into his old age. In addition to the scholarly monographs on which his reputation rests, such as Indigenous Political Systems of Western Malaya (1958) and numerous specialist articles in journals, he also published introductions to Malaysian history intended for a general audience.

In 1956, Gullick returned to England and took up a position as company secretary with The Guthrie Group, a company with concerns in rubber plantations in Malaysia. He left Guthries in 1962 and embarked on a legal career as a solicitor (he had entered Gray’s Inn while on home leave in the early 1950s and qualified as a barrister, and was able to transfer to be a solicitor). He joined the firm of E.F. Turner & Sons in 1963 and by 1974 had risen to senior partner. After making partner, he left the firm to lecture on company law, publishing what became the standard work on the subject for students preparing for examinations, entitled Company Law.

When civilian government was restored in Malaya in 1946, Gullick was transferred to the Malayan Civil Service and served as state secretary for Negeri Sembilan. When the Federation of Malaya was formed in 1948, he joined the secretariat in Kuala Lumpur. He held various positions in the Defense and Internal Security Department, Rural and Industrial Development Authority and the Malayanisation Committee, on which he worked closely with Onn Jaafar and Tunku Abdul Rahman.

In 1940, Gullick joined the King’s African Rifles and participated in the Abyssinian Campaign. At the end of the campaign he held various roles in the military administrations in Cairo, Madagascar and Malaya, where he served for six months in the British Military Administration in the state of Negeri Sembilan.

After graduating, Gullick entered the Colonial Administrative Service and was dispatched to Entebbe as the Second World War was breaking out in 1939. After serving as aide-de-camp to Sir Philip Mitchell for a short period, he was sent to Teso District as third assistant district commissioner.

J.M. Gullick (6 February 1916 – 8 April 2012) was a British Orientalist who is chiefly remembered for his ground-breaking contributions to the study of pre-colonial and early colonial Malay society, Indigenous Political Systems of Western Malaya (1958), Malay Society in the Late Nineteenth Century: The Beginnings of Change (1987) and Rulers and Residents: Influence and Power in the Malay States 1870–1920 (1992).

J.M. Gullick was born in Bristol in 1916. He attended Taunton School and won a scholarship to study Classics at Christ’s College, Cambridge, where he excelled academically, graduating with a Double First, and athletically, serving as captain of college boats.