Leonard Leslie Brooke ^16,22,198

  General Notes:

From The Times, May 2, 1940

Mr. Leslie Brooke, who died at his home in Hampstead yesterday, at the
age of 77, was an interesting and attractive personality rather than a
great artist, but his work was thorough and delicate, and as an
illustrator he had imagination, or at least fancy, and charm. Though
he produced a few oil paintings, it was a water-colourist and portrait
draughtsman and, above all, as an illustrator of children's books that
he was best known.
Among books illustrated by Brooke are the stories of Mrs. Molesworth
and the Nonsense Songs of Edward Lear, but perhaps his most popular
work was done in "Johnny Crow's Garden" and Johnny Crow's Party". He
was a graceful draughtsman, in sentiment approximating to the "men of
the sixties" - Fred Walker and Walter Crane in particular. Never
entirely without private means, he was a man of wide interests,
ranging from fine printed books to gardening, and easy circumstances
and interests combined kept him, no doubt, from fulfilling his early
promise as an artist.
Leonard Leslie Brooke was born at Birkenhead in 1862, being the second
son of Leonard D. Brooke. He was educated at Birkenhead School and
the Royal Academy Schools, where he won prizes. Whiel travelling in
Italy he had a serious illness, which left his permanently deaf, but
keenly interested in what was going on about him. In 1894 he married
Sybil Diana, daughter of the Rev. Stopford Brooke, who was his cousin.
His eldest son was killed in 1918 while serving in the Royal Air Force.

  Noted events in his life were:

1. Census UK 1871: 1871, 56 Park Road South, Birkenhead, Cheshire.

2. He appeared on the census in 1881 in 56 Park Road South, Birkenhead, Cheshire.

3. Census UK 1901: 1901, Main Street, Harwell, Berkshire.

4. Census UK 1911: 1911, 14 Marlborough Hill, St. Johns Wood, London. ¹⁰

5. Resided: 1921, Cumor, Oxford, Oxfordshire.

6. Resided: 1933, 28 Hollycroft Avenue, Hampstead, London.

7. Resided: 1 May 1940, 28 Hollycroft Avenue, Hampstead, London. ¹³

8. He had an estate probated on 22 August 1940 in London. ¹³

Leonard married Sybil Diana Brooke, daughter of Reverend Stopford Augustus Brooke and Emma Diana Wentworth-Beaumont, on 28 June 1894. (Sybil Diana Brooke was born in 1871 in Marylebone, London and died on 26 February 1957 in 45 Redington Road, Hampstead, London ^13,54.)