John Warden Brooke, 2nd Viscount Brookeborough, Bt, PC (NI) (9 November 1922 – 5 March 1987) was a Northern Irish politician, the son of Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, Basil Brooke, 1st Viscount Brookeborough.
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Lord Brookeborough was educated at Eton College. During the second world war he served in the British Army in North Africa, Italy and Germany. He was on the personal staff of Field Marshal the Viscount Alexander of Tunis. He was an Aide-de-Camp to Field-Marshal Earl Wavell, Viceroy of India 1947. In 1934, his father claimed in the Northern Ireland House of Commons that there had been a plot to kidnap Brooke by Nationalists during Sir Basil's time as Commandant of the Ulster Special Constabulary, a report which led him to dismiss every Catholic worker in his employ, for which he was accused of sectarianism.[1]
He was elected to Fermanagh County Council in 1947, until 1973, and was Chairman of the council from 1961 to 1973. He was appointed High Sheriff of Fermanagh for 1955. He succeeded his father as the Ulster Unionist Stormont MP for Lisnaskea in a by-election on 22 March 1968. He retained that seat until the abolition of the Parliament of Northern Ireland in 1973.
Brookeborough was a member of a dissident group of Ulster Unionist backbench MPs who campaigned for the removal of Terence O'Neill as Prime Minister. When O'Neill finally resigned in April 1969 his successor, James Chichester-Clark, brought some of this dissident group into his government. Brooke was made Parliamentary Secretary at the Ministry of Commerce (1969–1970), and then Parliamentary Secretary at the Department of the Prime Minister (1970–1972). Under Brian Faulkner's premiership, he was government Chief Whip (1971–1972) and also served in the Cabinet from 1971 as Minister of State in the Ministry of Finance.
In the Northern Ireland Assembly (1973–74) he represented North Down. When the Unionist Party of Northern Ireland was founded by pro Sunningdale Agreement members of the Ulster Unionists Brooke joined in 1974 and was again elected for North Down to the Northern Ireland Constitutional Convention (1975–76). He also represented the views of the Unionist Party of Northern Ireland (UPNI) in the House of Lords.
At 5.13pm delivered the final speech from the dispatch box at Stormont prior to its suspension by Edward Heath's Conservative government on 28 March 1972. In it he quoted from a poem by Rudyard Kipling entitled "Ulster", written in 1914, about the time his father's involvement in the political affairs of the province might be said to have begun. It ended:
"Before an empire's eyes the traitor claims his price.
What need of further lies? We are the sacrifice."
Lord Brookeborough married Rosemary Chichester, daughter of Lieutenant-Colonel Arthur O'Neill Cubitt Chichester, of Galgorm Castle, in 1949. They had five children, Alan, Christopher, Juliana, Melinda and Susanna. Lady Brookeborough died in January 2007.
| Parliament of Northern Ireland | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Basil Brooke |
Member of Parliament for Lisnaskea 1968 - 1973 |
Succeeded by Position prorogued 1972 Parliament abolished 1973 |
| Party political offices | ||
| Preceded by John Dobson |
Ulster Unionist Chief Whip 1971–1972 |
Succeeded by Office abolished |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by Daniel McGladdery |
Parliamentary Secretary, Department of the Prime Minister (Northern Ireland) 1970 – 1972 |
Succeeded by Office abolished |
| Preceded by New office |
Minister of State, Ministry of Finance 1971–1972 |
Succeeded by Office abolished |
| Peerage of the United Kingdom | ||
| Preceded by Basil Brooke |
Viscount Brookeborough 1973–1987 |
Succeeded by Alan Brooke |