Frank Neil Brockett 1916-75

Only child of Frank Brockett and Ellen SMITH, Neil—as he was always called—was born 24 Jan 1916 at ‘Lyndon’, Woodthorpe Rd, Ashford, Staines, Middlesex.¹ Here are some images of his early years in Southsea:

Neil is an example of a local boy ‘going global’ during the second World War and remaining so for the rest of his life. For a quick overview of his life:    Read more

Contents of this page:

1. Southsea 1916-33
2. World War II 1939-45
++Marriage 1940
++Dunkirk 1940
++1940-45
3. Tanganyika 1946-48
4. London 1948-1951
5. Aden 1951-54
6. Kenya 1954-66
7. Liberia 1966-72 and Indonesia 1974-75
8. Lyminster W Sussex

Southsea 1916-33

During Neil’s father’s final illness, Ellen moved back to her home town of Southsea, Portsmouth, Hampshire, see the separate page. Frank’s sister Daisy and her husband also lived there and, not having children of their own, requested to adopt Neil, but Ellen declined. There was apparently also an issue between Ellen and mother-in-law Selina Brockett regarding payment for Frank’s funeral, and Selina finally deducted the £20 for it from Neil’s share in her Will. In addition Neil lived all his childhood and youth till the War with Ellen in her parents’ house and their wider family circles, so all in all Neil had little to do with his Brockett relatives. For instance, he only had faint or repressed recollections of his uncle Jim Brockett, suggesting he had emigrated to Australia, see the separate page.

1928: Joined the OTC—the Officers’ Training Corps—aged 12.³

1930-32: In Jul 1930 F N Brockett was listed with 12 other under-18 candidates from Portsmouth Grammar School who passed the University of Cambridge Certificate Examination.⁴ His mother’s diary recorded that he was aged 14 years and 5 months. Her diary for his 16th year (1932) recorded: “On June 3 operated for appendicitis”. This apparently prevented him from taking the university entrance exam. He and/or his mother must then have contacted his mother’s 1st cousin Jabez Jabez-Smith, who in 1931 was “A controller of the Advance Department, [Lloyds Bank] Head Office, and 4 years later Assistant Chief Controller”,⁵ since Jabez wrote to Neil on 1 Sep 1932:

For a transcription    Read more

1933 17 Jan: Neil started work as a Clerk at Lloyds Bank in Shirley, Southampton one week before his 17th birthday.⁶ His mother’s diary for his 16th year concluded: “Interview with Lloyds Bank in Sep. Accepted. Started in Southampton (Shirley) Lloyds Bank at 16 years 11 months & 3 weeks.”:

World War II 1939-45

As mentioned in the Overview above, Neil had spent his childhood and early youth in the vicinity of the Naval Base in Portsmouth, and at the age of 12 joined the Officers’ Training Corps. Then on 19 Mar 1938, while still working at Lloyds Bank—by that time in Fareham—he was appointed as probationary Paymaster Sub-Lieutenant in the Royal Naval Reserve (RNR).⁷ He completed his probation by July 1938.⁸ As is well known, on 1 Sep 1939 Germany invaded Poland and two days later Great Britain and France declared war on Germany. On 29 Sep 1939 the England and Wales Register recorded Frank N Brockett, Bank Clerk and Royal Naval Reserve Paymaster Sub [Lieutenant], living with his mother Ellen, Midwife (retired), at 23 Outram Rd, Southsea.⁹ Neil was called up for active service in December 1939.

Then in the first half of 1940 two major events occurred in Neil’s life: he got married and soon after was transferred to Dunkirk for the famous evacuation.

Marriage 27 Jan 1940

On 27 Jan Neil and Doreen Lois TWEED were married in Elm Grove Baptist Chapel, Southsea, he aged 24, Bachelor, Paymaster Sub-Lieutenant RNR (Bank Clerk) of 23 Outram Rd, Southsea, she 22, Spinster, Dental Attendant, Portsmouth Education Authority, of 4 Hereford Court, Hereford Rd, Southsea; witnesses the two widowed mothers.¹⁰ Doreen was born 5 Sep 1917 in Portsmouth, only daughter of Rev Ernest William and Florence Louise TWEED. Like Neil, Doreen’s father died when she was an infant. Both were brought up in Southsea by their single mothers.

Dunkirk May-Jun 1940

Between January and 18 March 1940 Neil was recorded as Paymaster Sub-Lieutenant in the RNR, date of appointment 19 Mar 1938.¹¹ Then on 19 March he was promoted to Paymaster Lieutenant,¹² and within 2 months he was transferred to Dunkirk as part of the Royal Navy’s urgent efforts to evacuate hundreds of thousands of British, French and (?) Belgian troops left stranded when France fell to the Germans. The Senior Naval Officer (S.N.O.) in charge of the evacuation was Captain William Tennant—later Admiral Sir William George Tennant KCB CBE MVO DL—assisted by a team of between 9 and 12 senior officers. His second in command was Commander Guy Maund, and two others in the team relevant to Neil’s work, were Commander Ellwood, in charge of Signals / Communications, and Commander Harold Henderson, the British Naval Liaison Officer (B.N.L.O.).¹³

A 2½ page typed document entitled ‘NOTES ON THE EVACUATION OF DUNKIRK’ has survived among Neil’s papers concerning aspects of the evacuation he witnessed and was involved in:¹⁴
++

Neil’s Notes survive as a carbon copy of the original, which would probably have had a date and indication of addressee. However it’s clear from the contents that he typed them after the completion of the evacuation, and in response to an official request or requirement. Neil’s Notes included various notes Tennant had asked him to make during the operations, but the typed-up Notes clearly weren’t addressed to Tennant. Indication of the addressee was perhaps deliberately removed for confidential reasons from the carbon copy he kept. His Notes haven’t apparently been archived with the other TNA ADM reports, so perhaps they were requested by Henderson to help him compile his own Report. Neil kept his own carbon copy, but Henderson, or whoever, perhaps discarded Neil’s original once they had finished their own Report. Henderson’s Report hasn’t yet been located. “Ship captains and masters submitted reports of proceedings at the conclusion of the operation. Anyone else in a command function ashore would also submit a report. In addition, officers with a unique perspective might contribute.”¹⁵

While being as frank and open as was presumably required, Neil managed not to be overly critical about what must have been desperately frustrating situations, like the erratic progress of embarkation and having to waste time deciphering irrelevant messages:    Read more

It isn’t yet known when Neil was transferred to Dunkirk. His Notes show that by 29 May 1940 he was working for Captain Tennant. Section B of Neil’s Notes began, “On the day after the arrival of the S.N.O. at Dunkirk he asked me to keep notes of the operations of evacuation.” This implies that Neil was there before Tennant arrived. It’s well known that Tennant left Dover for Dunkirk on the afternoon of 27 May 1940 on the destroyer Wolfhound with a naval party of officers, ratings and signals staff, arriving in Dunkirk 1750 that evening.¹⁷ Two other comments in Neil’s Notes indicate the same. One, he wrote “Com. Ellwood brought with him a private ‘K.D.G.’ code for communicating with Dover.” Ellwood came over with Tennant.¹⁸ And two, under his final section Supplies of food for Naval Landing Party, Neil noted that the party arrived with 48 hours rations, and that the S.N.O. requested him to obtain food for “these 150 men”. “We know that the men in Tennant’s party were provisioned for two days before leaving Dover, and the “150 men” is roughly consistent with the number of ratings who went. There is no indication of another party as large that followed”.¹⁹

Neil’s role in Dunkirk didn’t apparently concern being a Paymaster, although his training as such would have contributed to his—by all accounts—commendable fulfilment of his duties. According to Doreen, he was a Liaison Officer, but whether this was her, or Neil’s, own description of his role or an officially-assigned one isn’t known. If it was an official role, then he was probably answerable to Commander Henderson, the British Naval Liaison Officer, who had arrived in Dunkirk before Tennant’s Party. However, once Tennant arrived Neil’s duties appear to have included assisting Tennant wherever required, and also Commander Ellwood had been placed in charge of communications with headquarters back in England. In section (A) under “Codes used,” Neil mentioned Commander Ellwood in his Notes, and Ellwood in his Report noted:²⁰

“During the week under review, the French Wireless Staff had ceased decoding messages in the Code Franco-Brittanique, and had turned this over to Paymaster Lieutenant Brockett, who worked untiringly and with great efficiency, helped only from time to time by the B.N.L.O. or myself.”

and went on to quote the two paragraphs from Neil’s Notes verbatim, starting “The K.D.G. Code …” Neil was also singled out by Commander Guy Maund, Tennant’s second in command, in his dramatic Report of the events:²¹

After attending “a conference between the French General, Admiral Abrial, General Alexander G.O.C., British Force, Brigadier Parminter, Commander Henderson, the B.N.L.O. and Captian Tennant … An incident this evening was that on returning to the Naval Headquarters with Commander Henderson after the meeting, a shell burst close to us and threw us off our feet. Henderson was wounded in the neck and the back and after dressing him, we sent him onboard a destroyer for passage to England.
++I should like to pay my tribute to Commander Henderson who proved himself a loyal and gallant Officer, and who was quite unmoved however black things might look, His cheerfulness and sangfroid was an example to everyone. Coupled with his name I should like to mention Paymaster Lieutenant Brockett.”²²
++
It’s worth noting that Maund’s long and detailed Report makes only three other specific commendations: to Commanders Surtees and Gotto, and as a concluding statement “to the cool, courageous and indomitable spirit of our leader – Captain Tennant.”²³

Maund’s mention of Neil with Commander Henderson suggests that he was working with Henderson, but, as mentioned above, from his Notes and other commendations he also clearly worked with Ellwood and Tennant directly.

Tennant’s office was in two or more locations on land and Neil would have spent time in the dugout at Bastion 28 at least.²⁴ Neil’s Notes show that he himself was also out and about on land and the beaches. This is confirmed by another curious memory he recounted: While he was on the beach one day a senior Belgian official drove up in a large American car, and told Neil he had no further use for it and he could have it if he wished. Perhaps it was the car Neil “obtained” to go and get food supplies? Whether or not the tale grew in the telling, it’s thought that Neil said that the senior Belgian official was Paul-Henri Spaak—Foreign Minister of Belgium at the time, and later Prime Minister and prominent in NATO and the UN.

Neil appears to have left Dunkirk on 2 June. His Notes said, “The notes I was able to compile … I gave to Captain Tennant on the day that he went to La Panne. … On his return two days later I recommenced the notes and when I left the following evening left them at the office.” Maund’s Report recorded that on 30 May Tennant proceeded to G.H.Q to see Lord Gort”,²⁵ and returned in the evening of 31 May.²⁶ Presumably 30 and 31 May were the two days and G.H.Q. was at La Panne (modern-day De Panne).

Mention in Despatches

“Paymaster Lieutenant Frank Neil Brockett, R.N.R.” was listed in The London Gazette of 16 Aug 1940 under ‘Mention in Despatches’.²⁷ The left part of the image below is the award certificate; on the right is a cutting from the Portsmouth Evening News of 2 Sep 1940:

For transcriptions    Read more

On 31 Aug 1940 Tennant wrote to Neil passing on General Gort’s appreciation of the Officers’ services in Dunkirk and congratulating him on being mentioned in despatches:

For a transcription    Read more

A close-up of Tennant’s signature on the letter:

1940-45

As indicated obliquely in Tennant’s letter and in the Portsmouth Evening News, on Neil’s return from Dunkirk he was appointed Secretary to Dartmouth Royal Naval College where he and Doreen lived for about 18 months. One of his responsibilities was to give the officer cadets their pay, and one of them to whom Neil doled out his pay was Prince Philip of Greece (who later became Philip Duke of Edinburgh). Then, early in 1942—probably after its repair in February—Neil was transferred to HMS London, and served on her until 1946 in the Arctic, S Africa, the Gulf, Australia and the Far East. He witnessed the Japanese surrender of the port of Sabang in the Strait of Malacca, on the HMS London 31 Aug 1945.³⁰

Meanwhile Doreen and the family stayed at 23 Outram Rd, Southsea, with Neil’s mother Ellen Brockett.

Between Apr 1941 and Mar 1943 the The Navy Lists recorded Neil as Paymaster Lieutenant in the RNR,³¹ with his name always preceded by an asterisk in a circle, indicating that he was a qualified officer.³² Then between May and Dec 1944 Neil was promoted to Lieutenant in the RNR,³³ and listed as such in The Navy Lists until Mar 1946.³⁴

1947-51: Although by then he was living and working in Tanganyika, on 19 Sep 1947 Frank Neil Brockett was promoted to Lieutenant Commander. He was still on the Active List of the RNR in Jun 1948,³⁵ and on 1 Apr 1949 Lt.-Cdr. F. N. Brockett was awarded the RNR decoration.³⁶ ‘RD’—The Reserve Decoration—was a medal awarded in the RNR to officers with at least 15 years of active duty, with wartime service counting double. On 15 Jan 1951 Lieutenant Commander FN Brockett RD, was removed from the RNR Active List and placed on the Retired List at his own request,³⁷ perhaps on his posting to Aden, see below.

Tanganyika 1946-48

Soon after demobilisation Neil accepted a post with the Colonial Audit Department and on 24 Jul 1946 sailed from Southampton in the Union Castle ship the Winchester Castle, full of professional men bound for the British colonies,³⁸ in his case Tanganyika (now Tanzania). The ship didn’t dock at Dar es Salaam, so he disembarked at Mombasa, and flew down to Dar by small plane. Doreen and the children followed suit 6 months later on 26 Dec 1946 from Liverpool in the Cunard White Star ship the Georgic, “Country of Intended Future Permanent Residence: Tanganyika”.³⁹

They lived in a house at Oyster Bay. Life would have been quite different from 23 Outram Rd, Southsea, where the family had stayed since leaving Dartmouth. As was usual with folk of modest means in those days, the family in Southsea had traditionally had just one live-in household servant, Jane Biss, who had been with them all her adult life.⁴⁰ From May-Sep 1948 Neil’s mother Ellen visited the family in Oyster Bay, keeping a diary of her visit. She listed 6 servants in her diary: “Maria the Ayah,⁴¹ Mohamed the Cook and Head boy, Hassan the House boy, Dominic Dhobi,⁴² Mbawna General help, and a Garden boy”. Her diary recorded visits to Leopard’s Cove in Dar es Salaam, and Bagamoyo, some 50 miles north along “bad roads… Got stuck in sand in middle of bush.” When they arrived there was “One European house—district Commissioner, gave us key for the Rest House. Convicts fetched water.” Another entry recorded “Neil’s 10 Indian clerks gave an evening party. We felt like Royalty.”

London 1948-1951

The career of Colonial Audit officers depended on the Department as a whole rather than on any particular locality and officers were liable for transfer between territories and head office in London. Thus, during leave from Tanganyika in 1948 Neil was reassigned to London head office in Queen Anne’s Mansions, Westminster, for 2 or 3 years. They lived at 12 Kenley Rd, Kingston upon Thames, Surrey, within commuting distance of Westminster. They owned the property until about 1965, renting it out to tenants. Neil was listed as resident there in Jan 1954, for instance, although they had returned overseas some years earlier:⁴³

Who were Charles F, Holden L and M.A. Brockett?    Read more

Aden 1951-54

Neil’s next posting in the Colonial Audit Department was to Aden, South Yemen. The family sailed on 7 Apr 1951 from London in the P&O ship the Canton, 1st class, “Country of Intended Future Permanent Residence: Aden”.⁴⁵ They did two 18-month tours in Aden. During the first tour they lived in a house on Downing Street in Khormaksar, where the RAF base was. For the second tour they lived in the flat above the Post Office at Steamer Point. In this early 1950s picture of Post Office Bay, Steamer Point, Aden, the Post Office is the flat-roofed building next along from the pitched-roof building first right, all facing out to sea.

There was no air-conditioning in those days and for the hottest part of the year the family slept in the open air on the flat roof. The Post Office was razed to the ground by shells from a ship offshore during the early 1970s when the People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen was in power.⁴⁶ The pitched-roof building was still intact in 2005.

The only white faces on a visit up-country December 1952 to the market in Mukeiras,⁴⁷ c 210km NE of Aden, on the border with North Yemen, in what was then the Aden Protectorate:

Kenya 1954-66

Early in 1954, after leave in England, Neil was posted to the Audit Department in Nairobi, Kenya. The family sailed on 1 Sep 1954 from Southampton in the Holland Africa Line ship the Boschfontein, travelling 1st class, via Suez, disembarking Mombasa, “Country of Intended Future Permanent Residence: Kenya”.⁴⁸

In 1952 sections of the Kikuyu tribe with others had launched a guerrilla campaign, usually called the Mau Mau Rebellion or Uprising, and in October the colonial Government declared a state of emergency. Much of the uprising took place in the Kikuyu heartlands of the Central Province. This included Nairobi, where Neil and family lived. Like most uprisings against the British Colonial Empire the rebellion is now the subject of negative retrospective criticism and anachronistic moralising, however while the uprising was largely directed against White settler farmers, there was also fighting between opposing Kikuyus. The Lake Victoria area peoples—the Luo and Luhya—did not join the Mau Mau but neither did they fight against them except as members of the police and security forces. For two relatively recent, anti-colonial appraisals   Read more

The uprising was largely quelled by Oct 1956 with the capture of Dedan Kimathi, but the state of emergency wasn’t officially lifted till 1960, and Britain announced plans to prepare Kenya for majority African rule. Thus, for the first part of their time in Kenya, Neil and Doreen and their family lived through the Mau Mau and for the second part through preparations for the end of colonial rule. From 1954-56 Neil worked in the Audit Dept, transferring to the Treasury in 1956, where his immediate superior was K W S Mackenzie, CMG, Minister for Finance & Development to the Government of Kenya. MacKenzie was mentioned frequently in the Kenya Gazette in the 1950s as Secretary to the Treasury and in the early 1960s as Minister for Finance & Development. In 1962 Mackenzie retired and, aware of changes ahead, wrote Neil a reference, which outlines Neil’s career path in Kenya up to 1962:⁵¹    Read more

An image of the signed final paragraph of the reference:

Neil and Doreen were always religious, brought up as Baptists, and in Nairobi were active members of St Andrews Presbyterian Church. Neil was Treasurer there for many years, then Session Clerk. Other outside-work activities of his were photography, bird-spotting and a 12-acre small farm in the Kinangop, past Naivasha near the Aberdare Hills.

At Independence on 12 Dec 1963, the Treasury passed over to the new independent Kenya Government, and Neil was transferred to the British High Commission as a First Secretary, liaising with the UK’s Commonwealth Relations Office in London. This was a Diplomatic post. His work principally concerned land resettlement, and in Jan 1965 he was appointed Secretary to the Stamp Mission:    Read more

Around this time Neil was approached by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Washington DC and he sent them a ‘Personal History Statement’, geared towards their financial-administrative perspective. It provides a succinct outline of his career in his own words:
1933-40 Lloyds Bank (England). General / accountancy
1940-45 Royal Navy. Secretarial and accountancy
Colonial (now Overseas) Audit Service
1946-48 (a) Tanganyika. Auditor
1948-51 (b) London Head Office. Auditor
1951-54 (c) Aden. Senior Auditor and acting Principal Auditor in charge
1954-56 (d) Kenya. Senior Auditor
Overseas Administrative Service Kenya
1956-59 Senior Assistant Secretary. Assistant Treasury Officer of Accounts
1959-62 Under Secretary. Treasury Officer of Accounts
1962-63 Deputy Director of Personnel. Also acting Director
1963-date Commonwealth Relations Office (British Government). First Secretary British High Commission.    Read more

Liberia and Indonesia 1966-75

On completion of his work for the Stamp Commission he worked—not so happily—for 3 or 4 months in the Ministry of Labour in London, until in Jul 1966 the IMF offered Neil an appointment as Budget Advisor. This developed into two separate assignments in Liberia 1966-69 and 1971-73, and one cut short in Indonesia 1974-75:

INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND
WASHINGTON, DC 20431
July 22 1966
Dear Mr Brockett:
++It is a pleasure to offer you an appointment as Advisor under a technical assistance program of the International Monetary Fund on the following terms and conditions.
++You will be assigned as Advisor to the Budget Director of the Government of Liberia. Your task will be to undertake a comprehensive reorganisation of the Budget Bureau, to strengthen its administration, and to improve its operations, with the objective of making the Bureau an effective instrument of financial programming. In the performance of your duties you would be responsible entirely to, and under the sole direction of, the Fund. …
++Sincerely yours,
++Phillip Thorson
++Director of Administration

Neil’s signature on his passport in 1966:⁵³

In Liberia his office was in the Executive Mansion in Monrovia, in the floor below that of William V S Tubman, President of Liberia 1944-71, and at the end of his first assignment he received the following letter from the President:

THE EXECUTIVE MANSION
MONROVIA
466/X-18/’69
February 22, 1969
Dear Mr Brockett:
Your letter of the 19th of February has been received and I note that Mrs. Brockett and you are scheduled to leave Liberia on the 26th instant.
I regret that your tour of duty here having expired, you will be leaving the country and returning to your Headquarters. Your services here as Budget Advisor have been very well performed and I greatly appreciate your services which I consider to have been very constructive. You carry our very best wishes.
Mrs. Tubman and I would like to have Mrs. Brockett and you to Dinner on Sunday evening, the 23rd instant at eight o’clock.
Kind regards,
Sincerely

The typical top hat and bow tie attire for Americo-Liberian high-society formal occasions, even in the sweltering heat:

In between the Liberian assignments—from 21 Apr 1969 to 1 Oct 1971—Neil worked in the Ministry of Overseas Development in London. Then six months into his second assignment as Budget Advisor in Liberia, Neil was diagnosed with cancer and had to have a colostomy operation in London 15 May 1972. Two months later he returned to Liberia to complete his agreed term to the end of Oct 1973. On 22 Oct the Auditor-General of Liberia wrote to William R Tolbert, President of Liberia (1971-80), who responded 26 Oct 1973:⁵⁴ “I note the high commendation you have made of Mr. Brockett’s performance during the tenure of his service; and your request, therefore, to hold a Cocktail Party as an indication of Government’s appreciation of his services. I also note your request for Government to decorate Mr. Brockett as an added recognition of his contribution toward the strengthening and promotion of the auditing program. Having reviewed your proposals within the framework of our existing policies regarding the recognition of merit, I approve your recommendations.” What became of the decoration isn’t known; the next month Neil received the following letter from President Tolbert:    Read more

Early the following year Neil and Doreen began an assignment as IMF Budget Advisor to the Government of Indonesia in Jakarta. However, after only a year in post the cancer returned and Neil again had to resign his post and return to the UK for treatment. This time it was unsuccessful.

Lyminster, W Sussex, England

From 1970 Neil and Doreen had the derelict Coach House Cottage, Lyminster, W Sussex, renovated for their retirement, and were listed as occupants in the Sussex phone directory from 1971.⁵⁵

Neil died of cancer 27 Nov 1975 in Lyminster, W Sussex, and a well-attended funeral service was held at Chichester Crematorium 1 Dec.⁵⁶ His Will was proved London 26 Jan 1976, estate valued at £23,151.⁵⁷ After a few years Doreen moved to 60A High St, Old Portsmouth. With its panoramic view over the entrance to the harbour she welcomed guests from all round the world for many years. She was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease in 1995, and died on 27 Dec 2005 of “old age” in Abbotts Barton Care Home, Winchester.⁵⁸ Her funeral service was held at Immanuel Baptist Church, Southsea. Ashes of both were buried in Lyminster churchyard.

Son Mervyn Neil Brockett, born 29 Sep 1946 Portsmouth, Hampshire; died Portland, Oregon, USA, 26 Aug 2015.

Page Last Updated: November 8, 2023