Basil Stanlake Brooke 1st Viscount Brookeborough

Basil Stanlake Brooke Brookeborough, 1st Viscount , 1888-1973, Northern Irish politician. After serving in the cavalry in World War I he was elected to the Senate of the first Northern Ireland Parliament (1921). He resigned the following year to lead the Ulster special constabulary against the Irish Republican Army's border raids in Fermanagh. Reelected (1929) as a Unionist member of Stormont, he served as minister of agriculture (1933-41), minister of commerce (1941-45), and prime minister (1943-63). A staunch advocate of Protestant dominance in Ulster, he remained opposed to any reconciliation with the Republic of Ireland. Created Viscount Brookeborough in 1952, he continued to sit at Stormont until 1968.

Brooke, Basil Stanlake, 5th Baronet and 1st Viscount Brookeborough (b. 9 June 1888, d. 18 Aug. 1973). Prime Minister of Northern Ireland 1943–63 Born in Colebrooke, Co. Fermanagh, and educated at Winchester and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst. A minister in the government of Northern Ireland during the 1930s, he replaced J. M. Andrews as Prime Minister in May 1943. He modernized the government in membership and policy, and after the war was heavily involved in the application of the Attlee government's welfare reforms to Northern Ireland. In the 1950s, he presided over an economic expansion, which led him to overestimate his grip on the province. He failed to appreciate the strength of Catholic feeling against his government, which was compounded by his decision to oppose the selection of Catholics as candidates for his Ulster Unionist Party. He was replaced by Terence O'Neill in 1963.

Brooke, Sir Basil, 1st Lord Brookeborough (1880–1974). Prime minister of Northern lreland 1943–63. Descended from Ulster plantation landowners, Brooke came to politics after a military career. He was behind the establishment of the Ulster Special Constabulary, minister of agriculture 1933–40, and the most active of Sir James Craig's administration. Minister of commerce 1940–3, his criticism of the ineffective response to wartime led to his premiership. He was an intransigent opponent of concessions to catholic minority and conservative in economic affairs.