Willie Brooke (18 December 1895 – 21 January 1939) was a British

Trade Union A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits ...

administrator and Labour Party politician. Brooke, the son of a woolsorter, was born in Bradford. He went to Carlton Street Secondary School; his first job was as an office boy for the Amalgamated Society of Dyers. His work for the Society qualified him for a scholarship to the London Labour College where he studied politics and economics. A bachelor, in 1925 Brooke was elected to Bradford City Council as a councillor. He became Chairman of the Governors of his old school, and took a particular interest in 'special schools' for the physically disabled. At the 1929 general election, Brooke was elected as

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...

(MP) for

Dunbartonshire Dunbartonshire ( gd, Siorrachd Dhùn Breatann) or the County of Dumbarton is a historic county, lieutenancy area and registration county in the west central Lowlands of Scotland lying to the north of the River Clyde. Dunbartonshire borders Pe ...

. He lost that seat in

1931 Events January * January 2 – South Dakota native Ernest Lawrence invents the cyclotron, used to accelerate particles to study nuclear physics. * January 4 – German pilot Elly Beinhorn begins her flight to Africa. * January 22 – Sir I ...

, but returned to

Parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: representing the electorate, making laws, and overseeing the government via hearings and inquiries. Th ...

in the 1935 general election for Batley and Morley. He suffered poor health from 1938, and stayed at

Grassington Grassington is a market town and civil parish in the Craven district of North Yorkshire, England. The population of the parish at the 2011 Census was 1,126. Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, the town is situated in Wharfedal ...

in North Yorkshire and the

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in order to recover, but during the

Sudeten Crisis The Munich Agreement ( cs, Mnichovská dohoda; sk, Mníchovská dohoda; german: Münchner Abkommen) was an agreement concluded at Munich on 30 September 1938, by Germany, the United Kingdom, France, and Italy. It provided "cession to Germany ...

he returned to Westminster.

References

* M. Stenton and S. Lees, "Who's Who of British MPs", Vol. III (Harvester Press, 1979) * Obituary from "The Times", 23 January 1939.

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Brooke, Willie 1895 births 1939 deaths Councillors in Bradford Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Scottish Labour MPs UK MPs 1929–1931 UK MPs 1935–1945