Humphrey Brooke

Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas Humphrey Brooke (31 January 1914 – 24 December 1988) was a British civil servant and art historian. He was a Monuments Man during the Second World War, then deputy director of London's Tate Gallery and secretary of the Royal Academy from 1952 to 1968. Serious depression in his 50s led to his early retirement, after which he became "an internationally acknowledged expert on roses".

Early life Humphrey Brooke was born on 31 January 1914 into a family of Yorkshire wool millers.

Career During the Second World War, Brooke worked in Italy with the Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives program, rising to the rank of lieutenant colonel, and did further such work in 1946 in Austria. In 1960, he declared that a painting believed to have been painted by Andrea del Verrocchio was actually painted by Leonardo da Vinci, making it the oldest known painting by Leonardo.

Serious manic depression led to his early retirement, after which he became "an internationally acknowledged expert on roses". Brooke thought that his manic depression "could only be cured by sex and smoking". Benckendorff's grandfather, Alexander Konstantinovich Benckendorff, was the Russian Empire's last ambassador to the UK. Brooke was friends with fellow East Anglian rosarian Peter Beales.

Brooke died on 24 December 1988. A portrait of Brooke smoking by Olwyn Bowey hangs at the Royal Academy.