The Treaty of Protection was signed on 17 September 1888. The Agreement gave the British Government no right to interfere with the internal administration of Brunei. Similar agreements were also signed by the British Government with Sarawak and British North Borneo. 

The Agreement prohibited Brunei from ceding or alienating territory to any foreign state, or the subjects or citizens thereof, without the consent of the British Government.

During the years after 1888, despite the treaty, Sultan Hashim felt that the British were not much interested in really protecting Brunei. Limbang was taken by Rajah Brooke in 1890. 

Sultan Hashim tried to seek help from Sultan Abdul Hamid of Turkey. It was then the British sent Malcolm McArthur to look into Brunei’s situation. In 1906, the first British Resident was in Brunei after the Supplementary Agreement to the Treaty of Protection was signed in 1905/1906. Sultan Hashim died in May 1906.

He enthusiastically welcomed the first seven Carmelites from Madrid, Spain in 1930. He also founded the local Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate Conception (FSIC) in 1936 with the help of the White Sisters.

The school was born on 13th April, 1946 at mile 3, Seria. It was a very simple building with kajang walls and a roof of attap leaves. On the day it opened, it had sixty six pupils and three teachers.

In early 1953 it was found that the school building was no longer suitable. It was condemned as a school premises and the committee was faced with the problem of erecting another building. At that time the Shell Oil Company vacated its old Headquarters office on the beach near Lorong Four and moved to a new premises. The Company kindly offered the school the use of the old office. The school moved into the office where it continued until early 1955.

The school could not carry on indefinitely in borrowed kajang buildings and in 1954 it was planned to build a new school. The Government gave the Mission a piece of land at Lorong Two near the bazaar. This site was cleared and prepared by voluntary labour. It was found, however, that the area was too small for the school building and a bigger space had to be found somewhere. Eventually the Company offered the site on which the new school now stands and the work on the new building began towards the end of 1954. It was completed by the middle of 1955 and was opened on 17th July, 1955.

Subsequent treaties with the United Kingdom in 1971 and 1979 set the timeline for independence, with Brunei set to gain full autonomy over its affairs on January 1, 1984.

The Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples decreed on 27 August 1855 the erection of the northern part of the island of Borneo into an independent prefecture of North Borneo and Labuan and entrusted it to Carlos Cuarteroni, a Spaniard. Cuarteroni was originally a sea-captain and had vowed, after escaping great peril, to devote himself to the evangelisation of Borneo. He landed at Labuan in 1857, in company with several missionaries who deserted him in 1860. Although alone in the island of Labuan, Cuarteroni continued his labours. At length, seeing that isolation made him powerless, he went to Rome in 1879 to request that the Propaganda place the mission in charge of an institute. From Rome, Cuarteroni went to Spain, where he soon died.

On learning that Mill Hill had been entrusted with the Borneo Mission, Bishop Vaughan travelled to St Joseph’s College, Mill Hill and after evening prayer with the students, he stood up and asked, “Who wants to go to Borneo?”

Two close friends, Edmund Dunn and Aloysius Goossens, who were not yet ordained, immediately put up their hands and three years later, they were among the first four priests appointed to Borneo.

Fr. A. Stotter founded the Catholic mission in Kuala Belait. He was the first resident priest in Brunei.

Brunei continued to be regarded as a mission of Labuan until 1936. Kuala Belait was made a head station and Fr. Arthur Crowther, MHM, was appointed the first resident priest in Kuala Belait.

Fr. Leo Barry took over as Rector Kuala Belait and Seria Missions in 1952.

Brunei became part of the Apostolic Vicariate of Kuching on February 14, 1952.

Brunei became part of the Diocese of Miri-Brunei on May 31.