Frederick Tom Brooks, 1882-1952

Abstract

Frederick Tom Brooks, Emeritus Professor of Botany in the University of Cambridge, died at his home in Cambridge on 11 March 1952. A West- countryman by birth and upbringing, he never lost his innate interest in the countryside or his love of Somerset, and his robust figure, purposeful gait, marked west-country ‘burr’, and infectious, hearty laugh remained an outward sign of this to the end. Brooks was born at Wells on 17 December 1882, the youngest in a family of five children, three of them girls. At the age of twelve he entered Sexey’s School, Bruton, and there the traits that later typified his life were either implanted in him or were brought to light under the influence of a youthful headmaster, Mr W. A. Knight, who was to prove himself so truly a pioneer of nature study and of science teaching in secondary schools. The school, like its headmaster, was young—it had been opened only three years previously— but new ideas were already being put to the test. Botany rambles, for instance, formed part and parcel of the school curriculum, as it was right they should do in a district so richly endowed with a wealth and variety of flora. Small wonder, therefore, that inspired and guided by an unusual headmaster, Brooks became the first of a long succession of pupils from the school who subsequently made their mark in the botanical world. He was never slow to attribute his abiding interest in botany and his ardour as a field botanist to this early encouragement. Knight was, in fact, the first of three men who profoundly influenced his interests and career, for it was not only a love of nature that was stimulated in him during his schooldays. He, like all his fellow pupils, was taught, among other things, not only to work but also how to work, even at unpalatable tasks; to play as well as work with zest; to overcome difficulties and become self-reliant; and to be thorough: and these are the qualities, together with determination and resolution, that later stood out in Brooks for all to see.