Brookfield was the son of Rev.
William Henry Brookfield, curate of St. Luke's, Berwick Street, and
Jane Octavia, daughter of
Sir Charles Elton, 6th Baronet. He was educated at
Rugby School and
Jesus College, Cambridge. He served as a lieutenant in the
13th Hussars in India and retired from the regular army in 1880. He was Colonel commanding the
1st Cinque Ports Rifle Volunteers and was a
JP for
Sussex. At the
1885 general election, Brookfield was elected Conservative
Member of Parliament (MP) for
Rye. In Parliament he was responsible for the
Uniforms Act 1894. During his time in Parliament, he volunteered for active service in the
Second Boer War, and was appointed to command a battalion of the
Imperial Yeomanry, leaving Southampton for South Africa in early April 1900 on the SS
Carisbrooke Castle. Brookfield left his parliamentary seat in 1903 to become British
Consul at
Montevideo, and in 1904 transferred as consul to
Danzig, then in West Prussia. In 1910 he became British Consul at
Savannah, Georgia, which was a shipping point for the cotton trade between the U.S. and Great Britain. He was appointed a Knight of Grace of the
Order of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem in England (KGStJ) in August 1901. ==Bibliography==