Harold Nicholas Brooking Mayor 1940-1941 & 1951-1952 Born on 30 March 1897 at Northlew, only son of Nicholas Brooking and his wife Bessie (nee Crocker). He became a motor fitter and turner before he joined the Royal Naval Air Service in 1916. During his time in the RNAS he served on the seaplane carrier ?Engadine?, a name he later used for his house in Station Road. He did over 1,000 hours of flying, mostly over the North Sea and in channel patrols. After his discharge as a Petty Officer Mechanic in 1919, he joined his father as a farmer and cattle dealer. In 1923 he married Margaret Ethel (Peggy) Stinchcombe, daughter of Edward Stinchcombe, an Okehampton jeweller and watchmaker. They lived initially in Mill Road, moving to Station Road in the late 1930s. They had two sons, Edward Nicholas (Nick) born in 1926, and Allan John born in 1934. As a farmer he specialised in pig breeding and exhibiting, and in 1937 he won the Bledisloe Trophy, the highest award offered for bacon pigs at the London Dairy Show. That same year he was president of the Okehampton and District Fat Stock Society. His farm was at Brightley, Okehampton. In 1932 he was elected to Okehampton Town Council, and was elected as an alderman in 1938. He was mayor for the first time in 1940-1941 and then served as deputy mayor to his successor, his cousin George Henry Gratton. In 1943 he was appointed a magistrate for the Hatherleigh Petty Sessional Division, later becoming vice-chairman. After eight years as deputy mayor he became mayor again in 1951, and was elected alderman for a second time in 1952. He was a committee member of the Okehampton and District Agricultural Association for many years, serving as chairman and showyard director. He was president of the association in 1952, having opened the show the previous year as mayor. At various times he held other presidencies, including Okehampton Boys? Brigade, Okehampton Rugby Football Club and the local Small Bore Rifle Club. He was also the first chairman of Okehampton Air Training Corps. He was a Freemason and was a past Master of Lodge Obedience (Okehampton). He supported and was a vice-president of the Okehampton Cricket Club. His eldest son Nick became a Flying Officer in the Royal Air Force. After service in Hong Kong and Singapore, he was on a training flight in Lincolnshire in January 1948 when the Wellington bomber he was piloting crashed with the loss of all three of the crew. His wife Peggy was also prominent in public life in Okehampton. She was a star performer with the Okehampton Amateur Operatic and Dramatic Society in the 1930s, a member of Okehampton Columbines hockey team and Okehampton Ladies? Putting Club. She was also a member of the League of Friends of Okehampton Hospitals. Harold Nicholas Brooking died on July 3 1954 aged 57. The funeral was held at the Congregational Church, with the service relayed into the Congregational Schoolroom, which, like the church, was filled to overflowing. Andrew James December 2004