Roy Brook (1922-2007)

Roy Brook was an accountant who wrote several books on the history of Huddersfield's public transport systems.

Publications

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Obituaries

Huddersfield Daily Examiner (04/Dec/2007):

A quiet and unassuming, but still remarkable, son of Huddersfield, Roy Brook was one of the town's great historians.

Mr Brook, formerly of Edale Avenue, Newsome, has died at the age of 85.

Author of books such as Huddersfield Corporation Tramways (1983) and The Trolleybuses of Huddersfield (1976), his first love was tramways.

He wrote several books about the trams and public transport systems of Huddersfield, but he was also an acknowledged expert on British waterways, a most accomplished photographer having many of his photographs published, and a great model maker.

Throughout his life he resolutely stuck to the belief that there was no better place to live than Huddersfield, and friends describe him as personifying all that is good about Yorkshire folk, with an easy-going, humble and friendly persona.

He was born in Huddersfield and attended school in Crosland Moor before starting work at an accountancy practice. He was to remain in that profession all his life and served as an accountant for many Huddersfield companies.

It was his father who worked with Huddersfield Tramways and passed on his interest in transport.

During the war he served in the Army as a cipher clerk and saw action in North Africa and Italy. He took part in the Allied assault on Monte Cassino in 1944.

Mr Brook was a keen music lover and was a subscriber to the Halle Orchestra and the Yorkshire Symphony Orchestra.

Although an only child, and having never married or had children, Mr Brook had a great many close friends, and became fondly known to some as Uncle Roy.

Andy Kilvington, 51, said: "My father worked with him, and he became a great friend of the family. Uncle Roy was one of the most honest, decent, truthful and uncomplicated people you could ever wish to meet. I am proud that he considered our family to be his own. It is his contribution to the written history of Huddersfield that he would best wish to be remembered for."

Mr Brook died peacefully at his home in Newsome on November 24.

His funeral is at Huddersfield Crematorium tomorrow.