| Admin History | Justin Brooke (1920 -2005) was born in Somerset to Justin & Doris Brooke. Brooke's Grandfather was Arthur Brooke founder of the tea company Brooke Bond. Brooke declared his connection with Cornwall began from an early age as he was delivered by a midwife from St Just and due to the fact that one of his Great Great Grandparents was Cornish.
Although little is known of his early years, Brooke appears to have travelled widely. He visited Finland as a part of the 1936 Public Schools Exploring Society programme and later volunteered to serve in the Finnish Army when the Russians invaded Finland in 1939. After being demobilised many of the volunteers stayed in Finland trapped by the German Occupation of other Scandinavian countries. Brooke remained in Finland to learn the language. After basic training with 1st Battalion Royal Engineers in Clitheroe, Brooke took a language test (by now he could speak Finnish and Swedish) and passed out as a member of the Intelligence Corps. Brooke would later write a book about his time in Finland titled 'Volunteers: the full story of the British Volunteers in Finland 1939-1941'.
After demobilisation in 1946 Brooke spent 5 years as a diplomat and 2 and a half years with the Inland Revenue. He then went into the City working for a firm of stockbrokers in the investment department. The firm had experts in all fields except for mining which allowed Brooke to develop an interest in mining which had begun during a trip around the world before the Second World War when he visited mines in Australia and Malaya. He decided to make mining his specialism and set about studying in order to offer advice to clients on mining shares. He began looking at the mining field of Cornwall and realised after a visit to the Guildhall Library that there was nothing relating to mining and its financial and legal history. Having read 'The Cornish Miner' by Dr A.K Hamilton Jenkin, Brooke met the author when on holiday in Cornwall in 1958. Hamilton Jenkin offered useful advice which spurred Brooke on with his research. Brooke's research was thorough, prolific and involved not only traditional academic research in libraries and archives but the visiting of old mine workings and workers (where possible), collecting books, maps and ephemera such as mining share certificates.
Brooke would eventually produce around 15,000 indexed sets of notes on individual mining and mineral ventures and concerns in the South-West going back to the Middle Ages. Brooke opted for a hand-made approach for collecting and collating his research using a manual typewriter and handwritten notes rejecting early computer technology which he feared would be obsolete before his research was complete.
Brooke eventually retired from the City and moved to Marazion in Cornwall where his mining expertise provided him with new opportunities. He was asked to produce reports on specific areas for mining companies, write articles for a variety of publications and give talks and lectures on various aspects of mining to a variety of audiences including the Workers' Educational Association (WEA) and The National Association of Mining History Organisations Conference.
Brooke also completed an M.Phil in Cornish Studies with the University of Exeter with his thesis on the subject of Henric Kalmeter's account of mining and smelting in the South-West in 1724-25.
Brooke was a member of numerous bodies concerned with history and conservation and was part of the team who managed the restoration of the Botallack Engine-House. He also became a Bard of the Gorsedh in 1992, his Bardic name Whythrer Stenoryon translates as Researcher of Tinners.
He was also became an affiliate of the Institution of Mining and Metallurgy, a Penwith District Councillor, Marazion Town Councillor and Council member of the Royal Geological Society of Cornwall.
Justin Brooke died in 2005.
|