He was born in Liverpool and was a member of a well-known Merseyside family assocaited with shipping and the cotton trade in the city for more than a century. He was the youngest son of Thomas Brocklebank, J.P, D.L. He was educated at Eton and Magdalen College, Oxford. He did much social work in his youth, living for a time in the East end of London. For a time he was a clergyman in that part of the city. He resigned from Holy Orders before making a successful career as a stock and share broker. At the
1923 general election, he was an unsuccessful candidate in the
Smethwick constituency, but at the
1924 election he was elected as MP for
Nottingham East, defeating the
Liberal Party MP
Norman Birkett. At the
1929 election, he did not stand again in Nottingham (where Birkett regained the seat), but stood in
Birkenhead East, where the sitting Conservative MP
William Stott had stood down. However, he was defeated by the Liberal candidate, former MP
Henry White. Brocklebank returned to the
House of Commons at the
1931 general election, when he won the
Liverpool Fairfield constituency. He held that seat until his defeat at the
1945 general election. In 1933 he brought in a Bill which became law to allow marriages between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. rather than between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m. to save poor people the cost of a day's work. In 1927 he married Grace Wise, neice of Tory MP Frederic Wise. They married in the Crypt Chapel of the House of Commons. The catering department of the House produced its first wedding cake for the occasion. He was survived by his wife and a daughter. == References ==