Sir Victor Alexander Brooke, 3rd Baronet (5 January 1843 – 23 November 1891), was an

Anglo-Irish Anglo-Irish people () denotes an ethnic, social and religious grouping who are mostly the descendants and successors of the English Protestant Ascendancy in Ireland. They mostly belong to the Anglican Church of Ireland, which was the establis ...

sportsman- naturalist and

baronet A baronet ( or ; abbreviated Bart or Bt) or the female equivalent, a baronetess (, , or ; abbreviation Btss), is the holder of a baronetcy, a hereditary title awarded by the British Crown. The title of baronet is mentioned as early as the 14t ...

. He was the father of

Field Marshal Field marshal (or field-marshal, abbreviated as FM) is the most senior military rank, ordinarily senior to the general officer ranks. Usually, it is the highest rank in an army and as such few persons are appointed to it. It is considered as ...

The 1st Viscount Alanbrooke, and grandfather of The 1st Viscount Brookeborough, Prime Minister of Northern Ireland. He shot and collected game trophies from around the world, took a special interest in deer and antelope species and published the first scientific description of the Persian fallow deer as a new species in 1875.

Life

Brooke was born at Colebrooke Estate,

County Fermanagh County Fermanagh ( ; ) is one of the thirty-two counties of Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the six counties of Northern Ireland. The county covers an area of 1,691 km2 (653 sq mi) and has a population of 61,805 ...

, the son of

Sir Arthur Brooke, 2nd Baronet ''Sir'' is a formal honorific address in English for men, derived from Sire in the High Middle Ages. Both are derived from the old French "Sieur" (Lord), brought to England by the French-speaking Normans, and which now exist in French only a ...

, an

Ulster Ulster (; ga, Ulaidh or ''Cúige Uladh'' ; sco, label= Ulster Scots, Ulstèr or ''Ulster'') is one of the four traditional Irish provinces. It is made up of nine counties: six of these constitute Northern Ireland (a part of the United Kin ...

aristocrat The aristocracy is historically associated with "hereditary" or "ruling" social class. In many states, the aristocracy included the upper class of people (aristocrats) with hereditary rank and titles. In some, such as ancient Greece, ancient R ...

and his wife Julia Henrietta née Anson in the north of

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, and St George's Channel. Ireland is the s ...

and succeeded to his title and the Colebrooke Estate in 1854. His mother had been maid of honour to the Queen who acted as his Godmother. At the age of ten, his father died and he was taken care of by his uncle George Brooke. The estate was stocked with fallow deer and Brooke added Irish red and Japanese deer in 1870. He took to sport shooting at an early age and trained in horsemanship under Jim Mason. Along with his brother Harry he often went to Castle Caldwell, belonging to a cousin, John Bloomfield, for game shooting. He studied at Harrow and then traveled abroad, being a keen sportsman who enjoyed

big game hunting Big-game hunting is the hunting of large game animals for meat, commercially valuable by-products (such as horns/antlers, furs, tusks, bones, body fat/oil, or special organs and contents), trophy/taxidermy, or simply just for recreation ...

. His hunting trips took him into the Pyrenees, the middle-east, and India. He was in touch with naturalists from around the world and was a Fellow of the Zoological Society. William Flower was first introduced to him in India by

Edward Blyth Edward Blyth (23 December 1810 – 27 December 1873) was an English zoologist who worked for most of his life in India as a curator of zoology at the museum of the Asiatic Society of India in Calcutta. Blyth was born in London in 1810. In 1841 ...

in 1870 and wrote on Brooke's contributions to natural history. Brooke attended the meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science at Dublin in 1878. Brooke described the Persian fallow deer in 1875 as a new species. Brooke's proposed work on

antelope The term antelope is used to refer to many species of even-toed ruminant that are indigenous to various regions in Africa and Eurasia. Antelope comprise a wastebasket taxon defined as any of numerous Old World grazing and browsing hoofed mamm ...

s remained unfinished at his death. The plates by

Joseph Smit Joseph Smit (18 July 1836 – 4 November 1929) was a Dutch zoological illustrator. L.B. Holthuis, Leiden, (1958, 1995) ''Rijksmuseum van Natuurlijke Historie, 1820 - 1958''. page 47reprint manuscript, PDF Background Smit was born in Lisse. H ...

and Joseph Wolf were later reused in Philip Sclater and

Oldfield Thomas Michael Rogers Oldfield Thomas (21 February 1858 – 16 June 1929) was a British zoologist. Career Thomas worked at the Natural History Museum on mammals, describing about 2,000 new species and subspecies for the first time. He was appo ...

's ''The Book of Antelopes'' (1894–1900). He was a magistrate, deputy lieutenant and Sheriff of Fermanagh.

Personal life

Brooke married Alice Sophia, daughter of

Sir Alan Edward Bellingham, 3rd Baronet ''Sir'' is a formal honorific address in English for men, derived from Sire in the High Middle Ages. Both are derived from the old French "Sieur" (Lord), brought to England by the French-speaking Normans, and which now exist in French only as p ...

, who he met at a party, in 1864. After their marriage they settled at a villa in Pau, France, where they had at least six children. The youngest was Alan - later

The 1st Viscount Alanbrooke. Another son served in India as a military secretary to the Earl of Minto, Victor Reginald Brooke (1873-1914) and took a keen interest in hunting. One grandson was The 1st Viscount Brookeborough, the third Prime Minister of Northern Ireland. Brooke died of

pneumonia Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severit ...

in Pau in November 1891, aged 48, and was succeeded in the baronetcy by his eldest son, Arthur. Lady Brooke died in July 1920.

References

External links

www.thepeerage.com
* 1843 births People educated at Harrow School Brooke, Victor Alexander, 3rd Baronet British naturalists Deputy Lieutenants of Fermanagh High Sheriffs of County Fermanagh 1891 deaths Deaths from pneumonia in France {{UK-baronet-stub