signatories when Sultan Abu Bakar promogulated the Johor state constitution in April 1895. The following month, Tunku Ibrahim accompanied Abu Bakar to London, who had the intent of seeking further negotiations with the Colonial Office on state affairs. Abu Bakar was by then a very sick man when he reached England, and Tunku Ibrahim spent much of his time by his father's bedside before Abu Bakar died the following month. Tunku Ibrahim was proclaimed as the Sultan of Johor on the day of Abu Bakar's burial on 7 September 1895, while his one-year-old son, Tunku Ismail was proclaimed as his heir-apparent. A formal coronation ceremony took place on 2 November 1895. He took over the state government the following year, and one of his first reports was the financial difficulties which the state was facing. Many of his employees complained of delays in receiving their salaries; which was often paid in instalments. Sultan Ibrahim then took charge of closely supervising the state treasury, and personally witnessed the payment of the state's employees during payment day. In the same year, he also took on the task of appointing the committee members of the Johor Gambier and Pepper Society (also known as Kongkek in Malay). Sultan Ibrahim was inexperienced in public administration skills and heavily relied on his private secretary, Dato Amar DiRaja Abdul Rahman bin Andak on advice and assistance in running the affairs of the state. The Resident General of the Federated Malay States, Frank Swettenham proposed to Sultan Ibrahim in November 1899 for the construction of a railway line into Johor, in conjunction with his plan for the North-South Main Trunk Railway line in the Malay Peninsula. Sultan Ibrahim welcomed Swettenham of the plan but was weary of political British influence in Johor and insisted on financing the construction of the railway linehimself. Swettenham was comfortable with Sultan Ibrahim's prospect of financing the railway line using the state's revenues, and submitted his proposals to the Colonial Office in England. The proposals drew scepticism from the Secretary of State for the Colonies, Joseph Chamberlain, who was aware of Johor's financial difficulties and withheld decision. Sultan Ibrahim then sent his adviser Abdul Rahman Andak the following May to London to negotiate with the Colonial Office, and in April 1901, Sultan Ibrahim made a year-long trip to London to seek private English financiers to fund the construction of the railway line and negotiated with the Colonial Office for a railway loan. The Sultan did, however, manage to obtain a loan for the construction of the railway and the Johor Railway Convention was signed in July 1904 by his adviser, Abdul Rahman Andak, that gave provisions for an extension of the Malayan railway line to be extended into Johor. During his reign, the Sultan was considered to be "fabulously wealthy." He also had a reputation as a wild international playboy. His exploits ranged from changing the colour of his racing horse to present it as an unknown – with better odds of course – to less savoury behaviour in the red-light area of Vienna. To be fair, he spread his wealth around, giving a magnificent pair of Malayan tigers to Edinburgh Zoo on the one hand and, on the other, sending a huge cash present to King George V on his Jubilee. The Sultan was an Anglophile and spent much of his life away from Johor, preferring the more liberal delights of Europe. He sent his sons, by his Malay wives, to be educated in Britain. The Sultan was reported to have given Sultanah Helen Ibrahim a spectacular jewel collection, reputedly giving her an emerald on her birthday and a diamond on their wedding anniversary, even after the divorce. It is little wonder that her jewellery collection was held to be the finest in the world. Sultan Ibrahim was the only son of Che Wan Abu Bakar, Temenggung of Johor by Che Puan Besar Zubaidah (née Cecilia Catharina Lange, 1848–1936). Zubaidah was the daughter of Mads Johansen Lange; a Balinese-based Danish businessman and his Chinese wife, Nonna Sang Nio (born Ong Sang Nio). Nonna, who was born in Southern China, lived in East Java for a time prior to her marriage to Lange. He had one sister, Mariam (born 1871). Sultan Ibrahim married at least four official wives who became sultanahs of Johor.