Robert Brooke-Popham
Air Chief Marshal Sir Henry Robert Moore Brooke-Popham,[2] GCVO, KCB, CMG, DSO, AFC (18 September 1878 – 20 October 1953) was a senior commander in the Royal Air Force. During the First World War he served in the Royal Flying Corps as a wing commander and senior staff officer. Remaining in the new Royal Air Force (RAF) after the war, Brooke-Popham was the first commandant of its Staff College at Andover and later held high command in the Middle East. He was Governor of Kenya in the late 1930s. Most notably, Brooke-Popham was Commander-in-Chief of the British Far East Command until being replaced a few weeks before Singapore fell to Japanese troops.
Sir Robert Brooke-Popham
Brookham[1]
18 September 1878
Mendlesham, Suffolk
20 October 1953 (aged 75)
RAF Halton, Buckinghamshire
United Kingdom
British Army (1898–1918)
Royal Air Force (1918–1942)
c. 1898–1937
1939–1942
Far East Command (1940–41)
Inspector-General of the RAF (1935)
Air Defence of Great Britain (1933–35)
Imperial Defence College (1931–33)
Iraq Command (1928–30)
RAF Staff College, Andover (1922–26)
No. 3 Wing RFC (1914–15)
No. 3 Squadron RFC (1912–14)
Early military career[edit]
After graduating from Sandhurst in May 1898, Brooke-Popham was gazetted to the Oxfordshire Light Infantry in the rank of second lieutenant,[5] and the following year promoted to lieutenant on 24 November 1899. As a subaltern he saw active service in the Second Boer War during 1899 and 1900 and on 26 April 1902 he was seconded for further duty in South Africa.[6]
During his time there he served in the Orange Free State, the Transvaal, the Orange River Colony, and Cape Colony.[7] He was promoted captain on 9 November 1904.[8] By 1910 Brooke-Popham had returned to Great Britain.[7] From 22 January 1910, he attended the Army Staff College at Camberley.[9]
RAF service during the inter-war years[edit]
Post-war honours[edit]
Following the end of the First World War, Brooke-Popham was decorated for his contributions to the war effort. In January 1919 he was awarded the Air Force Cross and made a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George. Later in the same year he was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath and was given a permanent commission in the Royal Air Force as a colonel. He was rapidly promoted to air commodore when the Air Force introduced its own rank system in August 1919.[5]
Private life[edit]
In Q2 1926 in Tadcaster, he married Opal Mary Hugonin (16 Oct 1900 - Q2 1983).[15]
They had two children, Diana M in Q4 1926 in Marylebone and Francis P in Q3 1928 in Uxbridge.[16]
In Q1 1948 in Westminster Diana married Robert H H Barton, and they had Margaret H, born Q4 1948 in Ploughley, Francis C H born Q3 1951 in Halstead, and Joanna M H , born Q4 1953 in Oxford.[17]
In Q1 1957 in Greenwich, Francis married Susan C Fry; they had three daughters, Jane E in Q1 1960 in Gosport, Catherine A in Q1 1962 in Portsmouth and MARY L in Q3 1964 in Islington.
In 1986 in Taunton, he married Diana J Michael.[18]
Governor of Kenya[edit]
Following Italy's occupation of Ethiopia, the British Government wanted a military man to hold the post of Governor of Kenya. Brooke-Popham was appointed Governor and Commander-in-Chief of Kenya in 1937[5] and his military expertise was useful in helping the colony prepare for a possible war with Italy.[4] Under his direction, a plan was devised which concentrated defensive resources on the strategically important port of Mombasa, which was judged to be the most likely Italian target.[4] Although this left Nairobi and the highlands with only limited defences, the barren regions of northern Kenya meant that the inland settlements were geographically protected from the Italian threat further to the north.[4] Eventually, as the Italian occupation of Ethiopia was characterized by strife and unrest, the threat to Kenya dissipated.[4]
Brooke-Popham's governorship was also marked by improved relations with the settlers.[4] His predecessor had sought to dominate the political and economic life of the colony which had aroused repeated opposition from some of the settlers' leaders.[4] However, in courting settler opinion, some historians have criticized Brooke-Popham for failing to deal with those settlers who wanted to limit African and Asian freedoms in Kenya.[4]
In 1939 on the outbreak of the Second World War, Brooke-Popham ordered the internment of all Germans in Kenya, directed that all aircraft be commandeered, and devised a plan to keep the colony's farms running. On 30 September 1939 he relinquished the governorship and returned to Britain.[4]
Second World War[edit]
Commonwealth Air Training Plan[edit]
Brooke-Popham rejoined the RAF shortly after his return to Great Britain and only weeks after the outbreak of the Second World War. He was first appointed as head of the RAF's training mission to Canada[5] where he worked on the establishment of the Commonwealth Air Training Plan. In 1940 Brooke-Popham was made head of the training mission to South Africa[5] where he continued work on the Plan.
Later years[edit]
After Brooke-Popham relinquished his role as President of the Navy, Army and Air Force Institutes Council, he lived in retirement. Brooke-Popham died in the hospital at RAF Halton in Buckinghamshire on 20 October 1953. His funeral took place at St. Edburg's Church in Bicester and he was buried privately in Somerset.[22]
Papers[edit]
Papers relating to Brooke-Popham's service are held in the Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives at King's College London.[23]