Frank Brooke

Francis Theophilius "Frank" Brooke PC, JP, DL (1851 – 30 July 1920) was an Anglo-Irish Director of Dublin and South Eastern Railways and a member of the Earl of Ypres' Advisory Council.[1] He was gunned down, aged 69, by elements of Michael Collins squad of the IRA. He was marked out for his activities as a judge, anti-republican activities, and his friendship with Sir John French. As an Irish Privy Counsellor, Brooke was a signatory of the order proclaiming Dáil Éireann illegal.[2]

For other people named Francis Brooke, see Francis Brooke (disambiguation).

Family

Brooke was a cousin of Sir Basil Brooke (who was later created, in 1952, the 1st Viscount Brookeborough), the future Prime Minister of Northern Ireland.[3] Brooke, a grandson of Hans, 12th Earl of Huntingdon, on his mother's side, and of Sir Henry Brooke, 1st Baronet, on his father's,[4] was married twice; firstly to Alice Moore, a daughter of the Dean of Clogher (d. 1909), and secondly to Agnes Hibbert.[5] By his first wife he had three children; Alice Gertrude (later Doyne), Lt. Col. George Frank Brooke and Henry Hastings Brooke.[5]

Career

Brooke was also Deputy Lieutenant of County Wicklow and County Fermanagh, a Lieutenant in the Royal Navy, a Justice of the Peace for County Fermanagh and an Irish Privy Counsellor (1918), thus he was styled The Rt. Hon. Francis Brooke.[5]

In July 1912 he had attended the house party at Wentworth Woodhouse hosted for George V's stay there.[6]

Death

On 30 July 1920, Brooke was killed at his offices, in Dublin, allegedly by Irish Republican Army (IRA) members Paddy Daly, Tom Keogh and Jim Slattery, in view of a colleague, who was spared. The inquest found Brooke had a pistol in his jacket pocket. Brooke's killing has been termed the only outright political assassination of the Irish War of Independence.[7]

References
  1. "A chronology of the Troubles". Archived from the original on 2 June 2007. Retrieved 9 June 2007.
  2. O'Halpin, Eunan & Ó Corráin, Daithí (2020), The Dead of the Irish Revolution. Yale University Press, pg 156.
  3. "Cambridge Journals". Archived from the original on 24 May 2011. Retrieved 9 June 2007.
  4. Lundy, Darryl. "p. 18129 § 181290". The Peerage.
  5. thepeerage.com Archived 7 August 2016 at the Wayback Machine
  6. Bailey, C (2007). Black Diamonds: The Rise and Fall of an English Dynasty, p. 130. London: Viking. ISBN 978-0-670-91542-2
  7. O'Halpin, pg 156
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