Basil Brooke, 1st Viscount Brookeborough

The Right Honourable The Viscount Brookeborough KG CBE MC TD PC (Ire)
Brooke in 1941
3rd Prime Minister of Northern Ireland
In office 1 May 1943 – 26 March 1963
Monarchs	George VI Elizabeth II
Governor	The Duke of Abercorn The Earl Granville The Lord Wakehurst
Preceded by	J. M. Andrews
Succeeded by	Terence O'Neill
6th Lord Lieutenant of Fermanagh
In office 26 April 1963 – February 1969
Monarch	Elizabeth II
Preceded by	Earl of Enniskillen
Succeeded by	Vacant (1969–71) Thomas Scott (1971–76)
6th Leader of the Ulster Unionist Party
In office 1 May 1946 – 25 March 1963
Preceded by	J. M. Andrews
Succeeded by	Terence O'Neill
Minister of Commerce
In office 16 January 1941 – 16 February 1945
Prime Minister	J. M. Andrews Himself
Preceded by	John Milne Barbour
Succeeded by	Roland Nugent
Minister of Agriculture
In office 1 December 1933 – 16 January 1941
Prime Minister	The Viscount Craigavon J. M. Andrews
Preceded by	Sir Edward Archdale
Succeeded by	The Lord Glentoran
Member of the House of Lords Lord Temporal
In office 5 July 1952 – 18 August 1973 Hereditary Peerage
Preceded by	Peerage created
Succeeded by	The 2nd Viscount Brookeborough
Member of the Northern Ireland Parliament for Lisnaskea
In office 22 May 1929 – 22 March 1968
Preceded by	New constituency
Succeeded by	John Brooke
Personal details
Born	(1888-06-09)9 June 1888 Colebrooke Park, Brookeborough, County Fermanagh, Ireland
Died	18 August 1973(1973-08-18) (aged 85) Colebrooke Park, Brookeborough, County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland
Nationality	British
Political party	Ulster Unionist Party
Spouses	Cynthia Brooke ​ ​ (m. 1919; died 1970)​ Sarah Eileen Bell Calvert ​ ​ (m. 1971)​
Children	3
Education	Winchester College
Alma mater	Royal Military College, Sandhurst
Military service
Allegiance	United Kingdom
Branch/service	British Army
Years of service	1908–1920
Rank	Captain
Unit	Royal Fusiliers 10th Hussars
Battles/wars	First World War
Awards	Military Cross Croix de Guerre (France)

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]