Basil Brooke , 1st Viscount Brookeborough The Rt Hon . Basil Stanlake Brooke , 1st Viscount Brookeborough , Bt , KG , CBE , MC , PC ( 9 June 1888 – 18 August 1973 ) , was an Ulster Unionist politician who became the third Prime Minister of Northern Ireland in May 1943 , holding office until March 1963 . Lord Brookeborough ( as Sir Basil Brooke , Bt , MP ) had previously held several ministerial positions in the Government of Northern Ireland , and has been described as " perhaps the last Unionist leader to command respect , loyalty and affection across the social and political spectrum of the movement " . He has also been described as one of the most hardline anti - Catholic leaders of the Ulster Unionist Party ( the UUP ) . Early life . Basil Stanlake Brooke was born on 9 June 1888 at Colebrooke Park , his family ' s neo - Classical ancestral seat on ( what was then ) the several - thousand acre Colebrooke Estate , just outside Brookeborough , a village near Lisnaskea in County Fermanagh , Ireland . He was the eldest son of Sir Arthur Douglas Brooke , 4th Baronet , whom he succeeded as 5th Baronet on the latter ' s death in 1907 . He was a nephew of Field Marshal The 1st Viscount Alanbrooke , Chief of the Imperial General Staff during World War II , who was only five years his senior . Lord Brookeborough ' s sister , Sheelah , married Sir Henry Mulholland ; their son would succeed as Baron Dunleath . He was educated for five years at St . George ' s School in Pau , France , and then at Winchester College ( 1901 – 05 ) . Military career . After graduating from the Royal Military Academy , Sandhurst , the young Sir Basil Brooke , 5th Bt , was commissioned into the Royal Fusiliers on 26 September 1908 as a Second Lieutenant . He transferred to the 10th Hussars in 1911 . He was awarded the Military Cross and Croix de Guerre with palm for his service during World War I . In 1920 , having reached the rank of Captain , he left the British Army to farm the Colebrooke Estate , his family ' s country estate at Brookeborough in west Ulster . Political career . Brooke had a very long political career . When he resigned the Premiership of Northern Ireland in March , 1963 , he was Northern Ireland ' s longest serving Prime Minister , having held office for two months short of 20 years . He had also established a United Kingdom record by holding government office continuously for 33 years . In 1921 Captain Brooke was elected to the Senate of Northern Ireland , but he resigned the following year to become Commandant of the Ulster Special Constabulary ( USC ) in their fight against the IRA . He was created a CBE in 1921 . In 1929 he was elected to the House of Commons of Northern Ireland as Ulster Unionist Party MP for the Lisnaskea division of County Fermanagh . In the words of the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , " his thin , wiry frame , with the inevitable cigarette in hand , and clipped , anglicised accent were to be a feature of Stormont for the next forty years . " Cabinet Minister . Brooke became Minister of Agriculture in 1933 . By virtue of this appointment , he also acquired the rank of Privy Councillor of Northern Ireland . He was thus known , from 1933 until his elevation to the Peerage in 1952 , as Captain The Rt . Hon Sir Basil Brooke , 5th Bt , CBE , MC , PC ( NI ) , MP . From 1941 to 1943 he was Minister of Commerce . Capt . Brooke addressed an Orange Institution rally at Newtownbutler on 12 July 1933 , where he said : As Prime Minister . In 1943 he succeeded John M . Andrews as Prime Minister . Graham Walker writes ( p . 149 ) " . . . Brookeborough ' s achievements over twenty years were substantial : the Unionist Party maintained essential unity , the anti - partitionist project was thwarted , and a potentially difficult post - war relationship with Britain under Labour was managed to the long - term benefit of Northern Ireland ' s full participation in the welfare state and new educational opportunities . . . " In 1952 Sir Basil , whilst Prime Minister , was raised to the peerage as Viscount Brookeborough , the title taken from the village named after the Brookes . Although a peer he retained his seat in the House of Commons at Stormont and remained PM for another decade . As Northern Ireland ' s economy began to de - industrialise in the mid - 1950s , leading to high unemployment amongst the Protestant working classes , Brookeborough faced increasing disenchantment amongst Unionist Party backbenchers for what was regarded as his indifferent and ineffectual approach to mounting economic problems . As this disenchantment grew , British civil servants and some members of the Unionist Party combined to exert discreet and ultimately effective pressure on Brookeborough to resign to make way for Captain Terence O ' Neill , who was Minister of Finance . In 1963 , his health having worsened , he resigned ( at the age of 75 ) as Prime Minister . But he remained a member of the House of Commons of Northern Ireland until the 1969 general election , becoming the Father of the House in 1965 . During his last years in the Parliament of Northern Ireland he publicly opposed the liberal policies of his successor as PM , Terence O ' Neill , who actively sought to improve relationships with the Republic of Ireland , and who attempted to address some of the grievances of Catholics and grant many of the demands of the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association ( NICRA ) . Brookeborough was noted for his casual style towards his ministerial duties . Terence O ' Neill later wrote of him : " he was good company and a good raconteur , and those who met him imagined that he was relaxing away from his desk . However they did not realise that there was no desk . " Later life and death . In his retirement Lord Brookeborough developed commercial interests ; as chairman of Carreras ( Northern Ireland ) , a director of Devenish Trade , and president of the Northern Ireland Institute of Directors . He was also made an honorary LLD of The Queen ' s University of Belfast . From 1970 to 1973 , years in which the Stormont institution came under its greatest strain and eventually crumbled , Brookeborough made only occasional forays into political life . In 1972 he appeared next to Bill Craig , M . P . , on the balcony of Parliament Buildings at Stormont , a diminutive figure beside the leader of the Vanguard movement who was rallying right - wing Unionists against the Government . He opposed the Westminster White Paper on the future of Northern Ireland and caused some embarrassment to his son , Captain John Brooke , the Unionist Chief Whip and an ally of Brian Faulkner , by speaking against the Faulkner ministry ' s proposals . In 1971 , following Lady Brookeborough ' s death in 1970 , Lord Brookeborough married Sarah Eileen Bell ( Mrs Cecil Calvert ) . He was 83 . Lord Brookeborough died at his home , Colebrooke Park , on the Colebrooke Estate , on 18 August 1973 . His remains were cremated at Roselawn Cemetery , East Belfast , three days later , and , in deference to his wishes , his ashes were scattered on the demesne surrounding his beloved Colebrooke Park . In its obituary , " The Times " remarked that " “ Brookeborough was a man of courage , conviction and great charm . But his political sense was seriously found wanting by the intransigence with which he excluded the Roman Catholic minority from responsibility and participation . ” " The obituary continued remarking that Brookeborough was " “ [ a ] staunch representative of the Anglo - Irish aristocracy and an unyielding believer in the Protestant Ascendancy . . . The sectarian strife now tearing at the fabric of Northern Ireland ' s society is in part attributable to the immobility imposed in his long period of political leadership . ” " Brookeborough ’ s estate was valued at £406 , 591 . 83 : probate , 5 December 1975 , CGPLA NIre . • £42 , 793 in England and Wales : probate , 7 November 1973 , CGPLA Eng . & Wales . Personal life and family . He married , firstly , Cynthia Mary ( 1897 – 1970 ) , second daughter and co - heir of Captain Charles Warden Surgison , of Cuckfield Park , Sussex . They were married on 3 June 1919 at St George ' s , Hanover Square . Their families were already close due to Miss Surgison ' s sister being married to Sir Basil ' s cousin . Following their marriage the Brookes went to live at Colebrooke Park . They had three sons , two of whom were killed in action during the Second World War . Lady Brookeborough died in 1970 and the following year , aged 83 , Lord Brookeborough married Sarah Eileen Bell Calvert , daughter of Henry Healey , of Belfast , and widow of Mr . Cecil Armstrong Calvert , FRCS , director of neurosurgery at the Royal Victoria Hospital , Belfast . Sarah Eileen , Viscountess Brookeborough , died in 1989 . In his private life , Lord Brookeborough was a man of the simplest and most modest tastes and habits . His greatest recreation was farming , and he won many awards . But he also liked shooting , fishing , and golf . Children . By his first wife Lord Brookeborough had the following children : Awards and decorations . He was awarded the Military Cross for " Distinguished Service in the Field " on 3 June 1916 . He was awarded the Croix de Guerre Having been appointed CBE in 1921 , Brooke was , on 1 July 1952 , raised to the House of Lords as Viscount Brookeborough , " of Colebrooke , County Fermanagh " . He was appointed a Knight of the Garter in 1965 . He held the office of " Vice - Admiral of Ulster " between 1961 and 1973 . He held the office of Lord Lieutenant of County Fermanagh and was Custos Rotulorum of County Fermanagh between 1963 and 1969 . Further reading . Brian Barton , " Brookeborough : the making of a Prime Minister " , The Institute of Irish Studies , Queen ' s University , Belfast , 1988 .