Alan Brooke, 3rd Viscount Brookeborough

Alan Henry Brooke, 3rd Viscount Brookeborough, Bt, DL (born 30 June 1952), is a Northern Irish peer and landowner. He is one of the 92 hereditary peers who remain, for life, in the House of Lords.

Early life and career

Brooke was educated at Harrow School, Millfield, and the Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester.

He joined the British Army in 1971, being commissioned into the 17th/21st Lancers. In 1977 he transferred to the Ulster Defence Regiment, which was to become the Royal Irish Regiment in 1992. He was promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel in 1993, and became Honorary Colonel of the 4th/5th Battalion, Royal Irish Rangers in 1997.

Personal life

Lord Brookeborough married Janet Elizabeth Cooke (daughter of JP Cooke, of Doagh), now Viscountess Brookeborough, in 1980. They farm the 1,000 acres (4.0 km²) Colebrooke Park, Brookeborough, County Fermanagh, in Northern Ireland.^[1]

Peerage

Brooke succeeded his father as the 3rd Viscount Brookeborough in 1987. Although he lost his automatic right to a seat in the House of Lords, with all other hereditary peers after the passage of the House of Lords Act 1999, Lord Brookeborough returned to the House as an elected crossbench peer in 1999.^[2]

He has been a Lord-in-Waiting to The Queen since 1997. He is President of the Co. Fermanagh Unionist Association and was appointed as an independent member of the NI Policing Board in 2001.^[3] The Lord Brookeborough has represented The Queen as HM's Lord-in-Waiting, instead of The Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall, on the arrival of the U.S. President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama to the United Kingdom on their official state visit, on 24 May 2011.^[4]

Family

Field Marshal Alan Brooke, 1st Viscount Alanbrooke, was a member of the same family.

See also

• List of Northern Ireland Members of the House of Lords

References

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by the Viscount Brookeborough