John Brooke-Little - Early and Private Life

Early and Private Life

John Brooke-Little was born in Blackheath, London. His mother, Constance Egan, was the author of many children's stories including the Epaminondas books and the adventures of Jummy the Baby Elephant. In the 1920s, Egan was the editor of Home Chat. This helped to prepare her for future editorial duties with The Heraldry Society's journal, The Coat of Arms in the 1950s. She was the second wife of Raymond Brooke-Little, who worked as an electrical engineer. His paternal ancestors, the Littles, came from Wiltshire and may be traced in the parish registers of Biddestone back to the late seventeenth century. A pedigree of his family appears in the 1972 edition of Burke’s Landed Gentry under the heading "Brooke-Little of Heyford House." Brooke-Little was educated at Clayesmore School, a progressive co-educational public school in Dorset. The school remained an important part of Brooke-Little's life, and he later sent his own children there. He oversaw the process of granting a coat of arms to the school while serving as chairman of its board of governors from 1971 to 1983.

As a boy, Brooke-Little's first contact with the College of Arms came when he went to see Sir Algar Henry Stafford Howard, then Garter Principal King of Arms. Howard was the head of the corporation of officers of arms at the College of Arms, and encouraged Brooke-Little's budding interest in the subject of heraldry. While still a student, he founded a heraldry society with his friends. Brooke-Little went to New College, Oxford in 1949 and read history. His college friends included Colin Cole, later Garter Principal King of Arms, with whom he refounded the dormant Oxford University Heraldry Society. The two men refounded it a second time in 1958. The Society was refounded in 2005 and currently holds one lecture per term.

Brooke-Little married Mary Pierce, daughter of JR Pierce, in 1960. The couple had three sons, Philip, Leo, and Merlin, and one daughter, Clare. In 2004, after having retired from the College of Arms, Brooke-Little lived at his Heyford House in Oxfordshire with the families of both Leo and Merlin.

Brooke-Little had a major stroke in 1994. This incident left his mobility and speech partly impaired, though his mind was still quite sharp. He continued in his heraldic duties until his retirement three years later. He also continued to guide The Heraldry Society after this. He suffered a succession of minor strokes over his last years as an officer of arms and during his retirement. He was still able to make appearances at functions of The Heraldry Society, though his role was severely limited by debilitating arthritis. It was a short series of several of these small strokes in quick succession which led to Brooke-Little's death on 13 February 2006 in Banbury, Oxfordshire, at the age of 78. He was one of the last surviving officers of arms to serve at the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. The funeral took place on 23 February 2006, and the eulogy was delivered by Henry Edgar Paston-Bedingfeld, York Herald of Arms in Ordinary at the College of Arms.