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| In office 14 July 1962 – 16 October 1964 |
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| Monarch | Elizabeth II |
| Prime Minister | Harold Macmillan Sir Alec Douglas-Home |
| Preceded by | R. A. Butler |
| Succeeded by | Sir Frank Soskice |
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| Nationality | British |
| Political party | Conservative |
| Spouse(s) | The Baroness Brooke of Ystradfellte |
| Alma mater | Balliol College, Oxford |
Henry Brooke, Baron Brooke of Cumnor PC, CH (9 April 1903 – 29 March 1984) was a British Conservative Party politician.
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Education
Brooke was educated at Marlborough College and Balliol College, Oxford.
Political career
Brooke became a founder of the Conservative Research Department in 1929. He was elected as a Conservative Member of Parliament for Lewisham West in a 1938 by-election. He was an ardent defender of Neville Chamberlain in the debate of May 1940, just before the prime minister's fall from power, and Brooke himself was defeated in the 1945 general election. That same year he was elected to the London County Council, and served as Conservative leader on the council until 1951, continuing to serve on the Council and the Hampstead borough council until 1955.
Brooke returned to parliament in 1950, and entered Winston Churchill's government in 1954 as Financial Secretary to the Treasury. He continued in this job until 1957, when he became Minister of Housing and Local Government and Minister of Welsh Affairs in the Macmillan government, entering the Cabinet, and in 1961 he became the first Chief Secretary to the Treasury. In 1962 he reached his highest level in government, becoming Home Secretary following Harold Macmillan's "Night of the Long Knives" when many senior ministers were sacked. As Home Secretary, Brooke was not particularly successful, and his actions caused controversy on several occasions, including a failure to provide adequate security for a state visit by King Paul and Queen Frederica of Greece.
Brooke was one of many politicians to receive unprecedented criticism on "That Was The Week That Was" on BBC Television in 1962/63, which called him "the most hated man in Britain" and ended a mock profile of him with the phrase "If you're Home Secretary, you can get away with murder". He was also involved in the passage of various new anti-drug laws, including ones banning possession of amphetamines and the growing of cannabis. As the final arbiter in death penalty cases he was the last Home Secretary to allow a death sentence to go ahead. Brooke went into opposition following the Conservative defeat in 1964, and he lost his seat in the subsequent election in 1966. He was created a life peer as Baron Brooke of Cumnor, of Cumnor in the Royal County of Berks in that year, but largely retired from public life.
Family
Brooke was the younger son of the English writer Leonard Leslie Brooke, and his wife Sybil Diana Brooke. Their only other child, his elder brother, died in World War 1. [1]
Brooke married Barbara Muriel, daughter of Reverend Alfred Augustus Mathews, in 1933. Their eldest son, Peter Brooke, Baron Brooke of Sutton Mandeville, also served as a Conservative Member of Parliament and Secretary of State, while their second son Sir Henry Brooke became a Lord Justice of Appeal. The couple also had two daughters. Barbara Brooke was created a life peer in her own right in 1964. Lord Brooke of Cumnor died from Parkinson's disease in March 1984, aged 80. His wife died in September 2000, aged 92.
References
- ^ thepeerage.com retrieved 29th July 2009
- The Times House of Commons 1955. The Times. 1955.
- www.thepeerage.com
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Philip Dawson |
Member of Parliament for Lewisham West 1938–1945 |
Succeeded by Arthur Skeffington |
| Preceded by Charles Challen |
Member of Parliament for Hampstead 1950–1966 |
Succeeded by Ben Whitaker |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by John Boyd-Carpenter |
Financial Secretary to the Treasury 1954–1957 |
Succeeded by Enoch Powell |
| Preceded by Sir Walter Monckton |
Minister of Housing and Local Government and Welsh Affairs 1957–1961 |
Succeeded by Charles Hill |
| Preceded by Office Created |
Chief Secretary to the Treasury 1961–1962 |
Succeeded by John Boyd-Carpenter |
| Preceded by The Lord Mills |
Paymaster-General 1961–1962 |
Succeeded by John Boyd-Carpenter |
| Preceded by Rab Butler |
Secretary of State for the Home Department 1962–1964 |
Succeeded by Sir Frank Soskice |
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