Basil Brooke, 1st Viscount Brookeborough

Infobox Prime Minister
honorific-prefix = The Right Honourable
name=The Viscount Brookeborough
honorific-suffix =
Bt., KG, CBE, MC, PC, HML


imagesize = 150px
order=5th
office =Prime Minister of Northern Ireland
term_start = May 1, 1943
term_end = March 26, 1963
predecessor =John Miller Andrews
successor =Terence O'Neill
constituency_MP2 = South Londonderry
parliament2 =Northern Ireland
term_start2 = 9 July 1960
term_end2 = 30 March 1972
predecessor2 = Dehra Parker
successor2 = "Parliament Prorogued"
birth_date = Birth date|1888|06|09
birth_place =Brookeborough, Northern Ireland
death_date =death date|1973|08|18
party= Ulster Unionist Party

Basil Stanlake Brooke, 1st Viscount Brookeborough, Bt., KG, CBE, MC, PC, HML (June 9 1888 – August 18 1973) was a British Ulster Unionist politician who became the third Prime Minister of Northern Ireland in 1943 and held office until 1963.

He had previously held several ministerial positions in the Government of Northern Ireland, and has been described as "perhaps the last Unionist leader to command respect, loyalty and affection across the social and political spectrum of the movement". [Walker, G, A history of the Ulster Unionist Party (Manchester 2004) p 150] He has also been described as one of the most hardline anti-Catholic leaders of the Ulster Unionist Party. [ Anti-Catholicism in Northern Ireland, 1600-1998The Mote and the Beamby John D. Brewer with Gareth I. Higgins (1998) ISBN 0 333 74635 X (Paperback) ]

Early life

Basil Stanlake Brooke was born on June 9 1888 at his family's 30,0000 acre estate, Colebrooke Park, Brookeborough, County Fermanagh. [Barton, Brian, "Brookeborough: The Making of a Prime Minister", 1988, p. 15] He was the eldest son of Sir Arthur Douglas Brooke, 4th Baronet, whom he succeeded as 5th Baronet on the latter's death in 1907. [ [http://www.thepeerage.com/p18091.htm#i180906 thepeerage.com] ] He was a nephew of Field Marshal Viscount Alanbrooke, Chief of the Imperial General Staff during World War II, who was only five years his senior. Brookeborough's sister, Sheelah, married Sir Henry Mulholland; their son would succeed as Baron Dunleath. He was educated for five years at St. George's School in Pau, France and then at Winchester College (1901-05) and Sandhurst. [ [http://www.thepeerage.com/p18091.htm#i180906 thepeerage.com] ] He was commissioned into the Royal Fusiliers in 1908, but transferred to the 10th Hussars in 1911. He was awarded the Military Cross and Croix de Guerre with palm for his service during World War I. In 1920 he left the British Army to farm his large estate at Colebrooke.

Personal life

He married, firstly, Cynthia Mary (1897–1970), second daughter and co-heir of Captain Charles Warden Surgison, of Cuckfield Park, Sussex. They were married on 3 June 1919 at St. George's Chapel, Hanover Square, London. Their families were already close due to Miss Surgison's sister being married to Sir Basil's cousin. [ [http://www.thepeerage.com/p18091.htm#i180906 thepeerage.com] ] Following their marriage the Brookes went to live at Colebrooke.

Lady Brookeborough died in 1970 and the following year, aged 83, Brookeborough married Sarah Eileen Bell, daughter of Henry Healey, of Belfast, and widow of Cecil Armstrong Calvert FRCS, director of neurosurgery at the Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast. She died in 1989. [ [http://www.thepeerage.com/p18107.htm thepeerage.com] ]

Children

By his first wife Lord Brookeborough had the following children:
* Lieutenant Basil Julian David Brooke (18 April 1920 - March 1943 - Killed in action)
* John Warden Brooke, 2nd Viscount Brookeborough (9 November 1922 - 5 March 1987)
* Lieutenant Henry Alan Brooke (29 October 1923 - April 1945 - killed in action)

Political career

In 1921 he was elected to the Senate of Northern Ireland, but he resigned the following year to become Commandant of the Ulster Special Constabulary in their fight against the IRA.

In 1929 he was elected to the Northern Ireland House of Commons as Ulster Unionist Party MP for the Lisnaskea division of County Fermanagh. In the words of the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography;

Cabinet Minister

In 1933 he was appointed Minister of Agriculture. In 1941 he became Minister of Commerce.

Brooke addressed an Orange Institution rally on 12 July 1933, where he said:

As Prime Minister

In 1943 he succeeded John M. Andrews as Prime Minister.

In 1952 Sir Basil, whilst Prime Minister, was raised to the House of Lords as Viscount Brookeborough, the title taken from the village named after the Brookes. Although a peer he retained his seat in the House of Commons at Stormont and remained PM for another decade.

As Northern Ireland's economy began to de-industrialize in the mid-1950s, leading to high unemployment amongst the Protestant working classes, Brookeborough faced increasing disenchantment from Unionist Party backbenchers for what was perceived to be his indifferent and ineffectual approach to mounting economic problems. As this disenchantment grew, British civil servants and some members of the Unionist Party combined to exert discreet and ultimately effective pressure on Brookeborough to resign to make way for the more 'progressive' Terence O'Neill who served as Finance Minister. [MacDonald, Michael, "Children of Wrath", Cambridge, UK: Polity Press, 1986, p. 71]

Lord Brookebrough resigned as Prime Minister in 1963 due to illness, he was 75 years old. He remained a member of the Northern Ireland House of Commons until the 1969 general election (when he was 81), becoming the Father of the House in 1965. During his last years in the Commons he publicly opposed the liberal policies of his successor as PM, Terence O'Neill, who actively sought to improve relationships with the Republic of Ireland and attempted to grant the civil rights demanded by the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association.

Decorations

Having been appointed CBE in 1921, Brooke was, on July 1 1952, raised to the House of Lords as Viscount Brookeborough, "of Colebrooke, County Fermanagh". He was appointed a Knight of the Garter in 1965. He held the office of "Vice-Admiral of Ulster" between 1961 and 1973. He held the office of Lord Lieutenant of County Fermanagh and was Custos Rotulorum of County Fermanagh between 1963 & 1969.

Later life

In his retirement Brookeborough developed commercial interests; as chairman of Carreras (Northern Ireland), a director of Devenish Trade, and president of the Northern Ireland Institute of Directors. He was also made an honorary LLD of Queen's University, Belfast.

In 1971, following Lady Brookeborough's death in 1970 Lord Brookeborough married Sarah Eileen Bell, he was 83.

Lord Brookeborough died at his home in Colebrooke on August 18 1973, he was cremated at Roselawn cemetery, Belfast, three days later, and in deference to his wishes his ashes were scattered on the demesne. His estate was valued at £406,591.83: probate, 5 December 1975, CGPLA NIre. · £42,793 in England and Wales: probate, 7 November 1973, CGPLA Eng. & Wales. [Oxford Dictionary of National Biography]

References

ee also

* List of Northern Ireland Members of the House of Lords

External links

*citeweb|url=http://www.thepeerage.com|title=The Peerage

Further reading

Brian Barton, "Brookeborough: the making of a Prime Minister", The Institute of Irish Studies, Queen's University, Belfast, 1988.