Basil Brooke, 1st Viscount Brookeborough

Basil Stanlake Brooke was born on 9 June 1888 at Colebrooke Park, his family's neo-Classical ancestral seat on (what was then) the several-thousand acre Colebrooke Estate, just outside Brookeborough, a village near Lisnaskea in County Fermanagh, Ireland.[4] He was the eldest son of Sir Arthur Douglas Brooke, 4th Baronet, whom he succeeded as 5th Baronet when his father died in 1907. His mother was Gertrude Isabella Batson. He was a nephew of Field Marshal The 1st Viscount Alanbrooke, Chief of the Imperial General Staff during World War II, who was only five years his senior. His sister Sheelah married Sir Henry Mulholland, Speaker of the Stormont House of Commons and son of Lord Dunleath. He was educated for five years at St. George's School in Pau, France, and then at Winchester College (1901–05).

After graduating from the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, the young Sir Basil Brooke, 5th Bt, was commissioned into the Royal Fusiliers on 26 September 1908 as a second lieutenant.[5] He transferred to the 10th Hussars in 1911. He was awarded the Military Cross and Croix de Guerre with palm for his service during the First World War.

Brooke was a very active Ulster Unionist Party member and ally of Edward Carson. He founded his own paramilitary group, Brooke's Fermanagh Vigilance, from men returning from the war front in 1918. Although the umbrella Ulster Volunteers (UVF) had been quiescent during the war, it was not defunct. It re-emerged strongly in 1920, subsuming groups like Brooke's.[3]

In 1920, having reached the rank of captain, Brooke left the British Army to farm the Colebrooke Estate, his family's country estate at Brookeborough in west Ulster, at which point he turned towards a career in politics.[6]

Brooke had a very long political career. When he resigned the Premiership of Northern Ireland in March 1963, he was Northern Ireland's longest-serving prime minister, having held office for two months short of 20 years.[7] He had also established a United Kingdom record by holding government office continuously for 33 years.[7]

In 1921 Captain Brooke was elected to the Senate of Northern Ireland, but he resigned the following year to become Commandant of the Ulster Special Constabulary (USC) in their fight against the Irish Republican Army (IRA). He was created a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1921.[7]

In 1929 he was elected to the House of Commons of Northern Ireland as Ulster Unionist Party MP for the Lisnaskea division of County Fermanagh. In the words of the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, "his thin, wiry frame, with the inevitable cigarette in hand, and clipped, anglicised accent were to be a feature of Stormont for the next forty years."

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 The Queen's University of Belfast.

From 1970 to 1973, years in which the Stormont institution came under its greatest strain and eventually crumbled, Brookeborough made only occasional forays into political life.[7] In 1972 he appeared next to Bill Craig MP on the balcony of Parliament Buildings at Stormont, a diminutive figure beside the leader of the Ulster Vanguard who was rallying right-wing Unionists against the Government of Northern Ireland. He opposed the Westminster white paper on the future of Northern Ireland and caused some embarrassment to his son, Captain John Brooke, the UUP Chief Whip and an ally of Brian Faulkner, by speaking against the Faulkner ministry's proposals.[7]

Lord Brookeborough died at his home, Colebrooke Park, on the Colebrooke Estate, on 18 August 1973. His remains were cremated at Roselawn Cemetery, East Belfast, three days later, and, in accordance with his wishes, his ashes were scattered on the demesne surrounding his beloved Colebrooke Park. In its obituary, The Times indirectly blamed him for the continuing Troubles: "Brookeborough was a man of courage, conviction and great charm. But his political sense was seriously found wanting by the intransigence with which he excluded the Roman Catholic minority from responsibility and participation". The obituary continued remarking that Brookeborough was "[a] staunch representative of the Anglo-Irish aristocracy and an unyielding believer in the Protestant Ascendancy...The sectarian strife now tearing at the fabric of Northern Ireland's society is in part attributable to the immobility imposed in his long period of political leadership".[7]

Brookeborough's estate[17] was valued at £406,591.83.[7] [18] His only surviving son, Captain The Right Honourable John W. Brooke, Privy Council of Northern Ireland, MP, succeeded to the viscountcy.[7]

Brooke married, firstly, Cynthia Mary Surgison (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, Hanover Square. Their families were already close owing to Surgison's sister's being married to Brookeborough's cousin. Following their marriage the Brookes went to live at Colebrooke Park. They had three sons, two of whom were killed in action during the Second World War.[7]

Brooke was a member of the Hanover Loyal Orange Lodge 1639, which served the Brookeborough estate. Involvement with the Orange Order was a longstanding family tradition.[19]

Lady Brookeborough died in 1970 and the following year, aged 83, Lord Brookeborough married Sarah Eileen Bell Calvert, daughter of Henry Healey, of Belfast, and widow of Cecil Armstrong Calvert, FRCS, director of neurosurgery at the Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast. Sarah Eileen, Viscountess Brookeborough, died in 1989.

In his private life, Brookeborough enjoyed farming, and he won many awards for it. He also liked shooting, fishing, and golf.[7]

Armorial achievement

He was awarded the Military Cross[20] for "Distinguished Service in the Field" on 3 June 1916.[21] He was awarded the Croix de Guerre in 1918.[22]

Having been appointed CBE in 1921, Brooke was, on 1 July 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 and 1969.

Ribbon	Award	Date	Post-nominal letters
	Order of the British Empire	1921	CBE
	Military Cross	1916	MC
	Order of the Garter	1965	KG
	Croix de Guerre	1918

• List of Northern Ireland Members of the House of Lords

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

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by the Viscount Brookeborough
• Newspaper clippings about Basil Brooke, 1st Viscount Brookeborough in the 20th Century Press Archives of the ZBW