Basil Brooke, 1st Viscount Brookeborough

The Viscount Brookeborough
Brooke in 1941
3rd Prime Minister of Northern Ireland
In office
1 May 1943 – 26 March 1963
MonarchsGeorge VI
Elizabeth II
Governor
Preceded byJ. M. Andrews
Succeeded byTerence O'Neill
6th Lord Lieutenant of Fermanagh
In office
26 April 1963 – February 1969
MonarchElizabeth II
Preceded byEarl of Enniskillen
Succeeded byVacant (1969–71)
Thomas Scott (1971–76)
6th Leader of the Ulster Unionist Party
In office
1 May 1946 – 25 March 1963
Preceded byJ. M. Andrews
Succeeded byTerence O'Neill
Minister of Commerce
In office
16 January 1941 – 16 February 1945
Prime Minister
Preceded byJohn Milne Barbour
Succeeded byRoland Nugent
Minister of Agriculture
In office
1 December 1933 – 16 January 1941
Prime Minister
Preceded bySir Edward Archdale
Succeeded byThe Lord Glentoran
Member of the House of Lords
Lord Temporal
In office
5 July 1952 – 18 August 1973
Hereditary Peerage
Preceded byPeerage created
Succeeded byThe 2nd Viscount Brookeborough
Member of the Northern Ireland Parliament
for Lisnaskea
In office
22 May 1929 – 22 March 1968
Preceded byNew constituency
Succeeded byJohn Brooke
Personal details
Born(1888-06-09)9 June 1888
Colebrooke Park, Brookeborough, County Fermanagh, Ireland
Died18 August 1973(1973-08-18) (aged 85)
Colebrooke Park, Brookeborough, County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland
NationalityBritish
Political partyUlster Unionist Party
Spouses
(m. 1919; died 1970)
Sarah Eileen Bell Calvert
(m. 1971)
Children3
EducationWinchester College
Alma materRoyal Military College, Sandhurst
Military service
AllegianceUnited Kingdom
Branch/serviceBritish Army
Years of service1908–1920
RankCaptain
Unit
Battles/warsFirst World War
Awards

Basil Stanlake Brooke, 1st Viscount Brookeborough, KG, CBE, MC, TD, PC (Ire) (9 June 1888 – 18 August 1973), styled Sir Basil Brooke, 5th Baronet, between 1907 and 1952, and commonly referred to as Lord Brookeborough, was an Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) politician who served as the third Prime Minister of Northern Ireland from May 1943, until March 1963.

Lord Brookeborough 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".[1]

Equally well, he has also been described as one of the most hard-line anti-Catholic leaders of the UUP,[2] and his legacy involves founding his own paramilitary group, which fed in to the reactivation of the Ulster Volunteers (UVF).[3]

  1. ^ Walker, G, A history of the Ulster Unionist Party (Manchester 2004) p 150
  2. ^ Anti-Catholicism in Northern Ireland, 1600–1998 The Mote and the Beam by John D. Brewer with Gareth I. Higgins (1998) ISBN 0-333-74635-X (Paperback)
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference :0 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).