Sam Hanna Bell Samuel Beckett John Hewitt Bernard (Barney) Hughes James Joseph Magennis VC Frances Elizabeth Clarke Stewart Parker William Carleton Rosamond Praegar

Basil Brooke (1888 - 1973):
Prime Minister of Northern Ireland


Basil Brooke was born in Colebrook, County Fermanagh, and was educated at Winchester and Sandhurst. He won two military honours in the First World War: the Military Cross and the Croix de Guerre. Having returned to manage his estate in Colebrook, in 1922 he was appointed Commandant of the Ulster Special Constabulary. He became a Unionist member of the Stormont parliament and held various ministerial posts, including Minister of Agriculture in 1933 and Minister of Commerce and Minister of Production in 1941, culminating in his appointment as Prime Minister of Northern Ireland in 1943, a position which he retained for twenty years. In 1952, he was created Viscount Brookborough. He was a prominent member of the Orange Order. His uncle was Lord Alanbrooke, who was one of the most significant military leaders during the Second World War, for most of it as Chief of the Imperial General Staff, the most influential position in the British army and who was latterly Chancellor of Queen's University, Belfast. 


Born: 9 June 1888
Died: 18 August 1973
Kate Newmann
Acknowledgements:

Additional research: Richard Froggatt