Alec Cooke, Baron Cooke of Islandreagh

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Lord Cooke of Islandreagh

Victor Alexander Cooke, Baron Cooke of Islandreagh, OBE, DL (18 October 1920 – 13 November 2007)^[1] was a politician in Northern Ireland.

The son of Victor and Alice Cooke, he was educated in Marlborough College and graduated from Trinity College in Cambridge with a Master of Arts in mechanical science. He served as a Royal Navy Engineer Officer between 1940 and 1946.

Cooke was Chairman of the Belfast Savings Bank in 1963 and of Harland and Wolff (1970-1987). Lord Cooke was Director of Northern Ireland Airports from 1970 to 1985. He was a Senator in the former Parliament of Northern Ireland from 1961 to 1968 and was the last member to remain politically active.

Cooke became a Deputy Lieutenant of County Antrim in 1971 and was invested as an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1981. He was created a life peer as Baron Cooke of Islandreagh, of Islandreagh in the County of Antrim on 11 August 1992.

He married Alison Sheila Casement (daughter of Maj-Gen Francis Casement) in 1951 and had two sons (Michael John Alexander (b. 1955) and James Victor Francis (b. 1960)) and one daughter (Victoria Sally (b. 1956), now The Hon. Mrs Nicholas Yonge). Lord Cooke died following a long illness, aged 87.