Powys-Lybbe Forbears - Person Sheet
Powys-Lybbe Forbears - Person Sheet
NameCharles Eiustace Rooke CMG 
[3, Death, Q? of 1947, Kent], [218, Vol 37 of 1921, p. 137]
[3, Death, Q? of 1947, Kent], [218, Vol 37 of 1921, p. 137]Birth22 May 1892, Callao, South America
Death21 Jul 1947, Corbeaux, Puckle-land, Canterbury
GeneralProb only s. Railway Director and General Manager.
Spouses
1Irene Phyllis Patterson [3, Birth, Q3 of 1890, West Derby dist, vol 8B, p. 631], [60, Borwick article, vol XIV, p. 693], [218, Vol 37 of 1921, p. 137]
[3, Birth, Q3 of 1890, West Derby dist, vol 8B, p. 631], [60, Borwick article, vol XIV, p. 693], [218, Vol 37 of 1921, p. 137]FatherThomas Main Patterson (ca1857-1915)
MotherMary Eleanor Carroll (ca1866-1923)
Marriage16 Sep 1920, Singapore [218, Vol 37 of 1921, p. 137]
ChildrenGiles Hugh (1930-2017)
Notes for Charles Eiustace Rooke CMG
The Genealogist, New Series_vol_37_of_1921 has an article on a Rooke family on pp. 132-146
titled
DESCENDANTS OF GILES ROOKE, OF ROMSEY AND HOUGHTON, CO. HANTS
On p. 137 there are these paragraphs:
“4. Charles Leonard Rooke, Lieut. R.N. born at Embleton 7 Nov., and bap. there 13 Dec 1816 (Sponsors, his uncle Captain E. C. Rooke, R.N., his cousin W.H.G. Kingdom, and aunt Lady Ashworth). Died at The Moorings, Verwood, Dorset, 21 May 1916. Married 19 April 1890, Frances Harcourt, daughter of Rev. William Norman. They had issue:—
“(1) Charles Eustace Rooke, born at Callao, South America, 22 May 1892. Holds a railway appointment under Government in the Malay State. Served as Lieutenant in the Indian Army in German East Africa during the Great War. Awarded war medals with clasps. Married at Singapore, 16 Sept. 1920, Phyllis Irene, second dau. of the late Thomas Patterson, of Liverpool and Littlebourne House, Kent.”
______________________
The above is the only source I have for his birth and for his marriage to Irene Phyllis Patterson.
I will continue to seek for public documentary evidence of these two events and for evidence for the birth of their son Giles Hugh Rooke.
______________________
From “The Cyprus Government Railway” by Alexander-Michael Hadjilyra, pub. Nicosis in 2006, p. 10:
“The financial adversities the CGR went through to survive made it necessary to conduct improvement studies for its future: with a 3-year window, Charles Eustace Rooke was appointed to conduct a detailed study. In March 1932, he proposed that Sections 2 and 3 - apart from the six miles to the west of Nicosia - should be closed down for regular operation and be replaced by road services, while the last five miles of Section 3 should be dimantled. When Section 2 (since Section 3, as a separate line, had ceased to exist) re-opened wntil Kalokhorio Station, it was used mainly for freight and mineral traffic. His proposal to re-nationalise Famagusta harbour, as to promote export trade, did not get across. C. E. Rooke soon became the General Manager of the Railway, succeeding W. M. Smithers.”
__________________________
From The Times:
20 June 1944: C.E. Rooke, recently General Manager Nigerian Railway, wrote to the Times from the RAC., Pall Mall on “A West African Survey”.
1 Jan 1945 Mr C.E.Rooke, C.M.G., was re-elected a Director of the Trans-Zambesia Railway Company.
10 Nov 1945 at the AGM of Nyasaland Railways Limited held in London:
“The term of appointment of Sir Frank Buddeley, K.B.E., C.M.G. as one of the representative of the the Nyasaland Government on the board ended on the 3rd of this month, and in his place the Nyasaland Government have appointed Mr C.E. Rooke, C.M.G.”
1 May 1947 Mr C.E. Rooke was a member was a member of the mission reporting on the [notorious] Gambia Ground Nut scheme.
3 Feb 1948 The Chairman of the Trans-Zambesia Railway, Vivian L Oury, provided this statement to the AGM:
“I regret to have to report the death … and on July 21 last of Mr C. E. Rooke, C.M.G., one of the representatives of the Nyasaland Government on the board. They both rendered services of the greatest value to the company and their wide knowledge of affairs in general, and of railways in particular, was aleays, and generously, made available to their colleagues on the bopard.”
4 July 1963: Ann Jennifer, only daughter of Mr and Mrs C E Rooke of Shorne Kent was to marry a Johnson Woodhouse.. [This is unlikely to be him but needs double checking.]
…
There are another 30 or so items identified but The Times site would not display them.
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titled
DESCENDANTS OF GILES ROOKE, OF ROMSEY AND HOUGHTON, CO. HANTS
On p. 137 there are these paragraphs:
“4. Charles Leonard Rooke, Lieut. R.N. born at Embleton 7 Nov., and bap. there 13 Dec 1816 (Sponsors, his uncle Captain E. C. Rooke, R.N., his cousin W.H.G. Kingdom, and aunt Lady Ashworth). Died at The Moorings, Verwood, Dorset, 21 May 1916. Married 19 April 1890, Frances Harcourt, daughter of Rev. William Norman. They had issue:—
“(1) Charles Eustace Rooke, born at Callao, South America, 22 May 1892. Holds a railway appointment under Government in the Malay State. Served as Lieutenant in the Indian Army in German East Africa during the Great War. Awarded war medals with clasps. Married at Singapore, 16 Sept. 1920, Phyllis Irene, second dau. of the late Thomas Patterson, of Liverpool and Littlebourne House, Kent.”
______________________
The above is the only source I have for his birth and for his marriage to Irene Phyllis Patterson.
I will continue to seek for public documentary evidence of these two events and for evidence for the birth of their son Giles Hugh Rooke.
______________________
From “The Cyprus Government Railway” by Alexander-Michael Hadjilyra, pub. Nicosis in 2006, p. 10:
“The financial adversities the CGR went through to survive made it necessary to conduct improvement studies for its future: with a 3-year window, Charles Eustace Rooke was appointed to conduct a detailed study. In March 1932, he proposed that Sections 2 and 3 - apart from the six miles to the west of Nicosia - should be closed down for regular operation and be replaced by road services, while the last five miles of Section 3 should be dimantled. When Section 2 (since Section 3, as a separate line, had ceased to exist) re-opened wntil Kalokhorio Station, it was used mainly for freight and mineral traffic. His proposal to re-nationalise Famagusta harbour, as to promote export trade, did not get across. C. E. Rooke soon became the General Manager of the Railway, succeeding W. M. Smithers.”
__________________________
From The Times:
20 June 1944: C.E. Rooke, recently General Manager Nigerian Railway, wrote to the Times from the RAC., Pall Mall on “A West African Survey”.
1 Jan 1945 Mr C.E.Rooke, C.M.G., was re-elected a Director of the Trans-Zambesia Railway Company.
10 Nov 1945 at the AGM of Nyasaland Railways Limited held in London:
“The term of appointment of Sir Frank Buddeley, K.B.E., C.M.G. as one of the representative of the the Nyasaland Government on the board ended on the 3rd of this month, and in his place the Nyasaland Government have appointed Mr C.E. Rooke, C.M.G.”
1 May 1947 Mr C.E. Rooke was a member was a member of the mission reporting on the [notorious] Gambia Ground Nut scheme.
3 Feb 1948 The Chairman of the Trans-Zambesia Railway, Vivian L Oury, provided this statement to the AGM:
“I regret to have to report the death … and on July 21 last of Mr C. E. Rooke, C.M.G., one of the representatives of the Nyasaland Government on the board. They both rendered services of the greatest value to the company and their wide knowledge of affairs in general, and of railways in particular, was aleays, and generously, made available to their colleagues on the bopard.”
4 July 1963: Ann Jennifer, only daughter of Mr and Mrs C E Rooke of Shorne Kent was to marry a Johnson Woodhouse.. [This is unlikely to be him but needs double checking.]
…
There are another 30 or so items identified but The Times site would not display them.
_______________________
Will notes for Charles Eiustace Rooke CMG
His probate index:
ROOKE Charles Eustace of Corbeaux Puckle-land Canterbury died 21 July 1947 Probate London 9 January to Walter Mountford Boulton and Ernest Alfred Henderson solicitors and Irene Phyllis Rooke Widow. Effects £7050 8s. 3d.
His will has been ordered to see what further information is to be known of his family.
__________________
In his will dated 12th November 1934:
A He appointed three executors:
1. Walter Mountford Boulton
2. Ernest Alfred Henderson, both solicittors,
3. His wife Irene Phyllis Rooke
B He was then living at Famagusta in the Island of Cyprus.
C He listed
1. the above executors
2. “My children or my child if only one living at the time of my death”
and no more people.
____________________
Comments on the will
That he was then living in Cyprus in 1934 confirms the snippet in the history of the Cyprus Government Railway that he had a project on that railway and eventually became its General Manager. Further it makes the reported birth of his and Irene’s son in Cyprus a little more likely, and which he gave a hint that that was all he had in 1934.
I conclude, from all the evidence found, that he only had the one child.
The mention and naming of his wife with no caution to indicate a different status (see the will of my gt-gt-grandfather PLPL) implies that he believed that they were married in spite of his having made no effort to get that marriage copied to the British record system (as was done by my gt-grandfather WRP-L for his second marriage in France). This gives me more hope that some record exists, probably in Singapore, and, even better, that I may be able to obtain a copy of that document.
But it is a remarkable feat to have written a will that survived without the need for any change for a period of a little over thirteen years.
______________________
ROOKE Charles Eustace of Corbeaux Puckle-land Canterbury died 21 July 1947 Probate London 9 January to Walter Mountford Boulton and Ernest Alfred Henderson solicitors and Irene Phyllis Rooke Widow. Effects £7050 8s. 3d.
His will has been ordered to see what further information is to be known of his family.
__________________
In his will dated 12th November 1934:
A He appointed three executors:
1. Walter Mountford Boulton
2. Ernest Alfred Henderson, both solicittors,
3. His wife Irene Phyllis Rooke
B He was then living at Famagusta in the Island of Cyprus.
C He listed
1. the above executors
2. “My children or my child if only one living at the time of my death”
and no more people.
____________________
Comments on the will
That he was then living in Cyprus in 1934 confirms the snippet in the history of the Cyprus Government Railway that he had a project on that railway and eventually became its General Manager. Further it makes the reported birth of his and Irene’s son in Cyprus a little more likely, and which he gave a hint that that was all he had in 1934.
I conclude, from all the evidence found, that he only had the one child.
The mention and naming of his wife with no caution to indicate a different status (see the will of my gt-gt-grandfather PLPL) implies that he believed that they were married in spite of his having made no effort to get that marriage copied to the British record system (as was done by my gt-grandfather WRP-L for his second marriage in France). This gives me more hope that some record exists, probably in Singapore, and, even better, that I may be able to obtain a copy of that document.
But it is a remarkable feat to have written a will that survived without the need for any change for a period of a little over thirteen years.
______________________
Notes for Charles Eiustace & Irene Phyllis (Family)
See the biography extract in Charles Eustace’s Mptes.