William Cunliffe Brooks (1819 - 1900) and the Saga of the Aboyne Isolation Hospital

Aboyne Hospital

If you walk down Bellwood Road, Aboyne or, if you visit the NHS Grampian website, you will find Aboyne Hospital, which today is a community hospital serving the population of Aboyne and the surrounding area.  Apart from GP surgery, its services are mostly provided for the pregnant and the elderly.  The NHS Grampian website describes the history of the hospital as follows.  “This hospital originally opened in 1898 when there was a shortage of hospital beds in the Deeside area.”  This statement is true enough, as far as it goes, but it masks a dramatic story involving a clash of wills between major local personalities and a confrontation between old power and influence, based on land ownership and new power, arising from democratic representation.  The story is laced with personal abuse, spin, pressure and outright lies.  It took place in a world where antibiotics had not been discovered and infectious disease took a regular toll of lives.  Aboyne eventually got its isolation hospital but in the process a darker side of the personality of Sir William Brooks, the owner of much of Aboyne at the time, was fully displayed.

Infectious disease in 19th Century Scotland
Fatal diseases such as Smallpox and Typhoid have always been present in both rural and urban populations in Scotland but the lower population densities and minimal population movements before the 18^th century limited their impact.  However, the industrial revolution, which is generally said to have begun about 1760, resulted in increasing movement of people from the countryside to the growing industrial towns and cities, mostly in the central belt, in search of work.  Living conditions for the workers in the burgeoning conurbations, such as Glasgow, Greenock and Dundee, were appalling.  Overcrowding, poor sanitation and waste disposal and dirty drinking water supplies were the norm.  Diseases, which we now know are caused by microbes, were rife and epidemics were frequent.  Towns and cities which were also ports suffered further due to the introduction of disease by sailors who had travelled to foreign parts.

In Scotland between 1835 and 1845 the average death rate in 331 rural parishes was 20.3/1000, while in the 14 principal towns and cities the average death rate was 26.7/1000.  The higher mortality rate in urban areas was largely accounted for by major diseases, such as cholera, tuberculosis and typhoid fever.  It is estimated that in 1832, 50% of those who caught cholera died from it.

In the early- to mid-19^th century, the cause of these diseases was heavily debated, there being two competing hypotheses.  One, Miasmatism, held that disease was due to foul air being breathed by unaffected persons, the other, Contagion, held that actual contact, direct or indirect, with an infected person was necessary to cause disease.  Until the work of Pasteur and Koch in the 1860s and 1870s established beyond doubt that the contagion hypothesis was correct, the miasmatists held sway and influenced public policy initiatives designed to counteract infectious disease.  These measures, which aimed to reduce or eliminate foul air, mostly involved the improvement of drinking water supplies, sewage and rubbish disposal.  They had a substantial impact in reducing disease incidence.

The verification of the contagion hypothesis led to the development of new immunisations to protect against specific diseases.  Although cowpox was first used to protect against smallpox by Jenner in 1796, immunisations for further diseases were not developed until the second half of the 19^th century by Pasteur, Koch and others.  Even so, it was many years before immunisation came into general use as a public health measure.  In the meantime the most effective strategy to prevent disease spreading from infected to uninfected persons was to keep them in isolation, either at home, in special wards in hospital or in special hospitals designed to isolate disease sufferers until they either died or recovered.  The first permanent fever hospital was built in Glasgow in 1865 and legislation contained in the Public Health (Scotland) Act of 1867 created a basis for fever hospitals to be established throughout the country. This Act also allowed the appointment of Medical Officers of Health, whose responsibilities included isolation of disease sufferers and public health measures designed to reduce the rate of infection.  Most fever hospitals were sited where they could serve large conurbations, since that is where the disease problems were most pressing.  However, overall provision of accommodation was slow and this was especially so in rural areas.

Local Government in 19th Century Scotland
Until 1890 public administration at county level in Scotland was the function of a variety of bodies, including the Commissioners of Supply.  This body was originally established in the late 17^th century to collect land tax but subsequently acquired other roles.  Commissioners of Supply, who were unelected, consisted of main landowners liable to pay land tax.  However, the situation changed in 1890 following the passing of the Local Government Act (Scotland) 1889.  This established partly-elected County Councils, which took over a number of administrative roles, including those formerly carried out by the Commissioners of Supply.  County Councillors were chosen by election in rural areas, the remainder being co-opted by Town Councils.  Large counties, such as Aberdeenshire were divided into Districts and each district had a committee containing the local county councillors, a representative from each parochial board and a representative from each burgh.  District committees were largely independent of their parent county council.  While county councils were formally responsible for carrying out the requirements of the Public Health Acts, decisions concerning local matters were effectively delegated to district committees.

The Deeside District Committee - Proposal for an Isolation Hospital
It was in this context that the Deeside District Committee of Aberdeen County Council met in the Huntley Arms, Aboyne under the chairmanship of Lt Col FN Innes of Learney, on Saturday, 9^th February 1895, to consider a report from the Public Health Sub-Committee.  Dr Watt, the Medical Officer of Health for Aberdeenshire had proposed a detailed plan for a cottage hospital with three beds at Braemar and a central isolation hospital for Deeside at Aboyne.  He had produced a detailed plan of the proposed Aboyne hospital.  It consisted of an administrative block and two pavilions and could be constructed in two phases, the whole scheme costing £1200.  A site of ½ to 1 acre would be needed.  Clearly this plan would need the cooperation of one of the major landowners in Aboyne, of whom, like the rest of Scotland, there were only penny numbers.  At a subsequent meeting Dr Watt requested authority to appoint a nurse temporarily, specifically to deal with infectious diseases, as there had been an outbreak of diphtheria in Deeside District.  The request was approved, subject to patients making a personal contribution, if they had the means to do so.  “Free at the point of delivery” would not be standard health policy for another fifty years!

The prevalence of infectious disease in Aberdeenshire at this time can be illustrated by reference to Dr Watt’s annual report presented in May 1896.  There had been 983 notifiable cases of which 546 were scarlet fever, 118 diphtheria, 109 enteric fever (typhoid fever), 97 erysipelas (Staphylococcal skin infection) and 110 measles, 108 of which had occurred in the Aberdeen District.

Further meetings of the Deeside District Committee were held throughout the spring and summer of 1895 at which a major item of business was the proposed isolation hospital.  Dr Watt identified a suitable site at Bellwood at the east end of the village, near to the slaughterhouse and the curling ponds.  He reported to the Deeside District Committee that the cost of laying out the ground would be £300 and a 12-14 bed hospital on the site could be constructed for £1500-£1600.  A special committee was then set up to evaluate the proposal and to report back.
 

The Bellwood site belonged to Lord Huntly and the trustees of Lord Huntly offered 1 ½ acres at a feu duty of £10/acre.   The special committee thus reported back to the Deeside District Committee that this site should be chosen for the isolation hospital on the terms offered and the main committee agreed.  Its proposal was then presented to the County Council and the Local Government Board and their consent was obtained in June 1896.  At further meetings of the Deeside District Committee two plans for the building were considered and the decision was finally taken in December 1896 to proceed with the smaller, cheaper scheme at a total cost of £2060, with running costs estimated at £250/year.  It was a further 3 ½ months before the contracts for construction of the Aboyne Isolation Hospital were signed.  Construction began immediately.

Sir William Cunliffe Brooks objects to the plans
At this time, the Deeside District Committee must have been feeling quite pleased with its achievements.  It had responded positively to an identified need for an isolation hospital on Deeside, produced a viable plan and had that plan approved at a national and county level, acquired a suitable site, approved a building plan and appointed contractors.  However, the tranquillity of the Committee’s proceedings were about to be disrupted.  At the meeting of the Deeside District Committee held, as always, in the Huntley Arms, on 26^th June 1897, a petition was submitted, signed by Sir William Cunliffe Brooks and 149 other inhabitants of Aboyne and the surrounding area, praying that the erection of the isolation hospital should not be proceeded with on the Bellwood site.  Sir William was the largest landowner in the Aboyne area at the time and not a man to be lightly brushed aside. However, Lt Col Innes, Chairman of the Deeside District Committee was himself a landowner in the neighbouring village of Torphins and, being a former officer in the Royal Horse Artillery, he stood his ground. After reading out the petition he noted that, while it was the right of all free-born Britons to petition, this matter “was not a matter of yesterday”.  The subject was first taken up at the end of 1894.  Dr Watt’s report was adopted unanimously.  The Committee then considered plans and sites.  In March 1895 they had expressions of interest from two landowners but only one led to the offer of a site.  Particulars of that site were then forwarded to the Local Government Board and approved by them, then sent to the County Council authorities in Aberdeen and approved by them.  The whole process had taken two years and had been conducted in public meetings which had been reported in the press.  In towns such as Turriff, Ellon and Alford isolation hospitals had been built even nearer to the general population that that proposed for Aboyne.  The Deeside Committee was properly constituted and had proceeded in a proper manner.  He concluded that the Committee did not have the power to rescind its decision and that the only way another site could be considered would be if an alternative, which met their needs, was provided and that they should be indemnified against all costs so far committed.  The committee then formally backed all the actions of the Chairman and the views of the Chairman and Committee were then formally recorded in a resolution.

William Cunliffe Brooks was a relative newcomer to Deeside, unlike other local landowners, such as the Farquharsons, and the Gordons, whose families had had a presence in Aberdeenshire for centuries.  Brooks was a Lancastrian who had become wealthy through the family banking business in Manchester.  His connection with Aberdeenshire seems to have been created by the marriage of his daughter, Amy, to Charles Gordon, 11^th Marquis of Huntley, in 1869.  Charles Gordon was an inveterate and unsuccessful gambler, who had inherited financial problems.  His gambling made those problems worse.  William Brooks provided a much-needed income in 1871 when he took a lease to the newly-created sporting estate of Glen Tanar, four miles south west of Aboyne, from his son-in-law.  Charles Gordon’s financial difficulties continued and the now Sir William Brooks stepped in again in 1888, purchasing Aboyne Castle – traditional home of the Huntlys (but allowing his daughter and son-in-law to continue living there), for £62,000.  In 1890, as the end of his lease to Glen Tanar approached, Sir William Brooks also purchased this estate for £120,000.

Why did Sir William not object to the hospital proposal at an earlier stage?  After all, the process had been conducted in public meetings, all decisions taken unanimously and the proceedings reported in the local newspaper.  It was later shown that Sir William had been formally asked by letter in 1895 if he would offer a site for the hospital but he formally declined, so it is incontrovertible that the matter had been brought to his attention.  However, it should be remembered that Sir William was getting on in years (he was 74 in 1895) and while he was no longer an MP for a Cheshire constituency, he was still working hard on the development of his Glen Tanar estate.  It seems more than likely he had forgotten about the matter and that he simply did not realise that when a site was chosen it might have implications for him.  It was only later, after the construction contracts had been signed, that he woke up to the possibility that his own considerable land assets in the area might suffer some impact.  The sudden presentation of a petition by Sir William and 149 other residents, when no objection had been previously made, suggests that Sir William used his influence with tenants, employees and those dependent on him for trade to generate the petition in short order.

As an interesting aside, there had been a previous proposal to build a hospital in Aboyne.  A Mrs Pickering, possibly a summer visitor, had offered funds for the erection of a convalescent home and hospital in Aboyne in 1890.  Instead of welcoming this generous gesture, the populace organised a public meeting to air their concerns.  There was great wariness about such a development, since it might be used for infectious diseases, which was perceived as potentially threatening Aboyne's attraction as a tourist destination.  Dr Keith, the local GP, clearly anxious to have such a facility, tried to reassure the meeting that the proposed hospital would not be used for treating infections, but the meeting was not to be persuaded.  Alexander Gray, the village blacksmith put the following motion to the meeting, "That this meeting expresses its deep sense of the great generosity of Mrs Pickering in providing funds for the erection of a convalescent home and hospital in Aboyne: but considering the great disadvantage and danger that may accrue to Aboyne as a health resort from certain kinds of diseases being admitted there, recommends the greatest strictness in drawing up regulations for the admission of patients, and appoints the following committee to correspond with Mrs Pickering with a view to conveying to her the opinions of the community, and to take any other steps they may deem advisable in the matter, viz, the Town Council, the parish minister, and the public schoolmaster.”  Note that Dr Keith was not included.  The motion was carried unanimously. Mrs Pickering then seems to have lost interest in the project as a result of this public wariness and the hospital was not built. However, it seems possible that when William Cunliffe Brooks instigated his petition against the siting of the proposed Isolation Hospital in 1897, he did not need to twist arms since a similar view had been generally expressed, without his intervention, only seven years previously.

11th Marquis of Huntly on the horns of a dilemma
Charles Gordon, 11th Marquis of Huntly and Sir William’s son-in-law, suddenly found himself in a difficult position.  He was a member of the Deeside District Committee and so had been a party to the discussions and decisions concerning the hospital and its siting.  Further, he had feued the hospital site at Bellwood.  He must have believed that his father-in-law was comfortable with the proposal.
  

Sir William Brooks, like many other landowners, was paternalistic towards his employees and tenants and generous in his support of local charitable causes but he was also demanding, autocratic and used to calling the shots.  He must have expected that his intervention in the matter of the siting of the Aboyne hospital would quickly lead to a change of plan but, when it did not, he mounted an intense, unremitting and, in many ways, dishonest campaign against the Deeside District Committee.  The details of Sir William’s actions give a fascinating insight into his personality.

Sir William stimulates a newspaper campaign
Ironically, for one who later claimed not to read the local newspaper, Sir William was quick to use this organ to publicise his campaign and to elicit support for his position through its editorial comments.  On Wednesday, 30^th June 1897, only two days after the report of Sir William’s petition and the response of the Deeside District Committee, a letter appeared in the Aberdeen Journal from “Inhabitant” making the case for a change of site for the proposed hospital, based mainly on the grounds of health risk and damage to the growing health and tourism economy of the village.  This was the first of many letters from readers, writing under pseudonyms, all supporting Sir William’s position, which appeared over the coming weeks.  It is a reasonable supposition that if Sir William was not the actual author of these letters, he at least caused them to be written and submitted.

The next day, Thursday 1^st June, 1897, Sir William published a letter from himself to the Chairman of the Deeside District Committee on the front page of the Aberdeen Journal, so it appears likely that he paid for it as an advertisement.  “5 Grosvenor Square, London, 29^th June, 1897.  Dear Sir,---Referring to the public meeting of your Committee on the 26^th inst., I remark that, until a short time ago (when I attended a meeting at Aboyne to assist in the preparations for the jubilee celebrations), I never knew that it was the intention of your Committee to erect, there, a Hospital for the reception of contagious disease.  Immediately, I remonstrated with your Committee; and the inhabitants of Aboyne unanimously petitioned against what they considered an injury to their property, at their thriving health resort.  I entirely sympathise with them – the injury to my considerable property, also there, would be great.  It is an outrage on decency that a Hospital for infectious diseases should be forced upon us – erected in our midst, against our unanimous remonstrance, whilst suitable, convenient, neighbouring sites can be obtained, where such a Hospital could be (as it should be) isolated.  If a change be made to the site at Dess, which has been offered to the Committee, (and which has been approved by them) as being in every way suitable, I offer to pay all the expenses which have been incurred.  Yours true, Wm. Cunliffe Brooks.”

By making this correspondence public before the Committee had had an opportunity to consider it, he was clearly trying to pressurise them into reconsidering their position by mobilising public opinion against the proposed site.  The letter demonstrates that Sir William was quite prepared to bend the truth and even to tell outright lies in support of his position.  It was clearly not the case that the inhabitants of Aboyne “unanimously” petitioned against the hospital site, whether or not those who added their names to the petition were induced to do so by Sir William.  Further, it was a ludicrous claim that the hospital was being forced upon the population, when the decision had been taken after due consultation, within a clear legal and democratic framework.  Also, the alleged approval by the Committee of the site at Dess, which lay some miles to the east of Aboyne, was a figment of Sir William’s imagination.  At least one aspect of Sir William’s opposition became clear as a result of the publication of his letter.  His personal concern was not an increased risk of infection to the general population, nor potential damage to the economy of Aboyne, but his perception that his considerable landholdings in the area might be devalued.

In his letter of 29^th June, Sir William appeared to be ready to meet one of the Deeside District Committee’s principal requirements, ie that they be indemnified against all additional costs incurred.  He never repeated this offer and never allowed it to be written down in a legally-binding format.  Indeed, soon (9^th July) he rushed into print again in the Aberdeen Journal, making clear that he would not be bound by an uncapped liability.  His letter to the Chairman of the Deeside District Committee, was published on the front page.  It rejected the terms on which the Committee were prepared to consider alternative sites with the simple sentence “You demand too much.”  This proved to be a fatal miscalculation by Sir William.  He treated the matter of costs as one which could be resolved by haggling and completely failed to understand that the Committee were legally bound by their decision and that they could only reconsider the location of the hospital site under the security of an unrestricted indemnity.  Sir William doggedly stuck to his guns, repeatedly refusing to give the necessary undertaking.  All this time, the construction of the hospital at Bellwood continued and the potential costs of changing sites mounted inexorably.  Sir William seemed blind to the consequences of his intransigence.  He was in danger of painting himself into a corner.

The frequency with which Sir William, or those acting on his behalf, wrote to the press, shows that the hospital site had become an all-consuming matter, requiring his almost constant attention.  An eloquent, scaremongering but unsigned letter appeared in print on 10^th July, suggesting that Aboyne would become synonymous with contagious disease and lose any claim to be a health resort.  It also alleged that the purpose of the conditions imposed by the Deeside District Committee was as a tactic, designed to ensure that the site could not be changed.  The editorial stance of the Aberdeen Journal continued to be solidly on the side of Sir William but, on this occasion, the editor was moved to remark acidly that “Truth” does not send his name along with his letter!

Sir William ramps up the pressure on the Deeside District Committee
On 12^th July Sir William, accompanied by strong editorial backing from the Aberdeen Journal, announced that he was prepared to pay £1000 if the Committee would move the hospital site away from Aboyne.  It should be born in mind that £1000 was a considerable sum, more than £100,000 in 2013 money and amounted to about 50% of the capital cost of the hospital.  Sir William’s doggedness was beginning to look irrational but his blatant and unremitting spinning of his stance and the solid editorial support that he was receiving was starting to unnerve the Deeside District Committee.  Perhaps they were concerned that Sir William was winning the battle for public opinion?  Two days later, Mr WE Nicol, a member of the Committee, was moved to enter the correspondence columns of the Aberdeen Journal, presumably with the support of his chairman.  The first part of the letter laid out clearly the constraints within which the Committee was bound to operate.  “Sir, - Your article of yesterday on the Aboyne Hospital must be convincing to those who are not aware of the facts.  Sir WC Brooks’ offer is no doubt a generous one, but cannot be of any use to the District Committee; to erect the hospital on another site may cost more or may cost less than the sum offered, but the committee cannot speculate with ratepayers’ money.”  He then turned to the use of misinformation by the opponents.  “The hospital on the proposed site, being perfectly isolated, could do the village no harm, but the objectors who are agitating against it are doing much mischief by trying to convince the public that dangers would arise.”

Sir William's attacks become more personal
Publicity supporting the Deeside District Committee only spurred Sir William on to even greater efforts.  He appeared increasingly to personalise his attacks and to show a streak of self-pity.  Another pseudonymous letter, this time from “Inhabitant”, criticised Mr Nicol for writing in the terms he did and lauded the generosity and public spiritedness of Brooks.  It suggests to Mr Nicol that he should himself offer a site close to his residence, if there was no risk from the hospital.  WE Nicol was the owner of Ballogie House and land bordering the river Dee close to Aboyne. 

Sir William, under his own name, then accused the Deeside District Committee of “making a blunder” in a letter published on 17^th July. He urged the Committee to use the £1000 to escape from the blunder.  The editorial stance of the Aberdeen Journal started to change about this time.  In a long article on 15^th July, summarising the situation, the paper still supported Sir William’s position but had clearly become more balanced.  Perhaps they were becoming increasingly concerned that they might suffer if they were seen to be supporting a cause, whose principal sponsor was adopting an increasingly vituperative tone and might be at risk of losing?

The Deeside District Committee held a special meeting on Friday, 22^nd July, rather than the usual Saturday, perhaps to ensure that important personalities, including the Marquis of Huntley, Sir John Clark of Tillypronie and Sir Allan Mackenzie of Glen Muick, could be present.  The meeting must have been very tense, since important Deeside personages were progressively lining up on opposite sides of the argument.  It must have been particularly uncomfortable for Charles Gordon, Marquis of Huntley, stuck on the horns of a dilemma, since his father-in-law was deepening and intensifying the dispute, yet Charles Gordon had himself approved the siting of the hospital at Desswood, on land that he owned.  He must have longed for a solution which was acceptable to Sir William but which was consistent with the position he had taken on the Deeside District Committee.  Sir William Brooks, who was present at the meeting, reiterated his offer of £1000 compensation, but pointedly refused to pay more.  He also criticised his son-in-law (ouch!) for not passing on the information that the Desswood site was to be offered for the isolation hospital.

The Deeside District Committee sticks to its guns - but seeks a compromise
Lt Col Innes, who chaired the meeting, defended the actions of the Committee and challenged some of Sir William’s wilder claims, such as that opposition in the area had been “unanimous”.  Not sparing his fellow Committee member, the Marquis of Huntley, he reminded the meeting that Huntley and others had not signed the petition. Huntley spoke at the meeting and tried valiantly to find the middle ground.  He believed that the Committee and its Chairman had acted properly but since there was a significant body of opinion in the area against the Desswood site, he thought that the Committee should consider those objections.  He did not oppose the present site but tried to find an alternative which would be acceptable to the critics by suggesting a site that he owned at Dess, some miles east of Aboyne, which was adjacent to only a small local population.  However, this site had never been formally evaluated by the Committee and now there was local objection to it, in the form of a petition organised by Captain Davidson, the owner of the Dess estate.  Huntley now suggested a new site near Aboyne, which was half a mile east of the present site and where there was no other residence within 700 yards in any direction.  The Committee agreed that this new site should be inspected by Mr Jenkins, the hospital architect and Dr Watt, the county medical officer.  While defending their actions, the Committee were keen to find a mutually-acceptable solution and they appointed a sub-committee with powers to negotiate with the objectors.  Everyone, it seemed, wanted a compromise solution, even the Aberdeen Journal, whose editorial stance was almost visibly softening.  But the air of optimism conveniently overlooked the realities of the situation.  Sir William would not give an unconditional indemnity, no alternative site had been formally approved and the contractors continued their labours at the Bellwood site.  Time waits for no man!

Sir John Clark infuriates Sir William and the opportunity for compromise evaporates
Further meetings of the Deeside District Committee were held to consider alternative sites and at the meeting of 7^th August 1897 Dr Watt reported that the compromise site was acceptable subject to certain conditions.  While civil engineers reported that an enhanced water supply would be needed, Sir William had already indicated that he was prepared to see extra water abstracted from a supply on his land.  But tensions were still running high and Sir John Clark made the incendiary accusation that the petition was due to one man who had pressurised the people of Aboyne into signing.  Sir William must have been incensed and another pseudonymous correspondent, this time “Resident”, immediately took up cudgels on Sir William’s behalf. “Sir – I beg to resent as an individual the gross insult to the community of Aboyne contained in the closing sentences of Sir John Clark’s speech, or personal explanation, at the meeting of the Deeside District Committee on Saturday.  Sir John was pleased to designate the petition of the ratepayers as the outcome of “natural prejudices founded on ignorance and misinformation.”  Sober-minded people, however, know that there are certain kinds of men who use rich adjectives in speaking of any ideas or opinions which may differ from their own,….Sir John Clark when he proclaimed in substance at the meeting on Saturday that the great bulk of the Aboyne ratepayers are a set of ignorant prejudiced fools, in that they signed a petition at the behest of an “individual” under “extraordinary pressure”.” 

The air of guarded optimism which had been building up started to evaporate.  Sir William was now utterly entrenched in an obdurate refusal to meet the additional costs of an alternative site, without limit and the Local Government Board confirmed, by letter, that they could take no action in the matter unless those costs were guaranteed.  The Marquis of Huntley, dismayed by the latest turn of events, tried to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.  He intervened directly with the Local Government Board, urging the desirability of the new site upon them and suggesting that the Brooks offer of £1000 should be sufficient to cover the additional costs and pointing out that the approved site was near the slaughterhouse, but they were unmoved.  It was now the end of August and the new hospital was ready for roofing.  By this time there was virtually open warfare on the Deeside District Committee.  The tissue of unanimity covering the reality of division finally blew away.  A resolution to adhere to the present site was carried by four votes to three, with Lord Huntley, Sir Allan Mackenzie and Mr F Sandison (tenant of the Huntley Arms, then owned by Sir William Brooks) opposing.  As far as the Committee was concerned, consideration of alternative sites was now closed.

Sir William refused to admit defeat.  Indeed, the formal resolution to retain the original site unleashed a blizzard of further correspondence from “Old Aboyne Visitor”, Inhabitant”, “An Old Resident”, “H B Upcher” and Brooks in his own name.  The themes were the same, praise for Brooks for his generosity and public works, self-pity that the authorities did not properly recognise Brooks’ contributions, fearmongering and abuse of the Committee, this time its Chairman, Lt Col Innes, who was accused of browbeating public opinion.

Sir William resorts to the law
While conducting his unrelenting campaign in the media and from the floor at the Deeside District committee, Sir William had also been active on the legal front.  He organised an appeal to the County Council of Aberdeen against the proceedings of the Deeside District Committee, which was submitted on 17^th July 1897.  “We the ratepayers of the district over which the Deeside District Committee exercises the power of local authority under “The Public Health Acts”…..appeal to the County Council of Aberdeen against the resolution and proceedings of the Deeside District Committee relative to the erection of a Hospital……at a site on the east side of the Village of Aboyne and to the north-east of the Aboyne Mill Lade…..”  In addition to himself, Sir William had recruited the local ministers of the Church of Scotland, the Free Church and the Catholic Church, the Provost of Aboyne and five prominent village tradesmen and artisans to sponsor the appeal.  If Sir William was hoping for a quick hearing, he was to be disappointed for the matter took three months to be formally considered by Aberdeen County Council.

Before the hearing of the petition by the County Council, the Deeside District Committee set out its position in writing.  They had taken legal opinion on the status of the appeal and their advisers were clear that it would probably fail, since it had not been made timeously.  However, the Deeside District Committee did not miss an opportunity to point out the essential dishonesty of the campaign against their decision.  “The appellants, it is stated, other than perhaps Sir William Brooks, who has declared that he did not read public reports of meetings unless his special attention was called to them, were aware of the selection of the site at Aboyne but it never seemed to have occurred to any of them, or to their special representatives on the District Committee, to make any objection until Sir William Brooks stirred them up to join with him in this crusade.  Regarding the merits, the District Committee state that the reasons of appeal submitted are tainted throughout by unreasonable, unfounded and unsupported averments which hardly deserve the serious consideration of the County Council.” …”The designation of Aboyne as the “fever village”…is the work of the appellants and their friends.  Their words and actions have been directed to raising a groundless alarm.”

The petition was heard by the County Council on 22^nd October.  Mr AM Gordon of Newton, Convener, opened by regretting the upset to Sir William Brooks but the County Council was charged with administering the Local Government Act and that was the only basis on which they could proceed. The agent for the District Committee, Mr Lumsden, was then called to speak.  His basic point was that the appeal was not timeous and should be dismissed on those grounds.  He further stated that the proceedings of the District Committee had been proper and that since the works were effectively complete the appeal had become meaningless.  The Marquis of Huntley then spoke.  He claimed that since the building of a hospital was not obligatory the District Committee could have stopped the work. Mr Lumsden dismissed the opinion of the Marquis of Huntley.  It was open to the ratepayers to seek an interdict if they felt on 17 July that the Committee erred in refusing to stop the work.  They did not do so.  The motion to reject the appeal was adopted unanimously.

Sir William's last throw of the dice
This decision should have drawn a veil over the matter, but it did not.  Even before the meeting to consider the petition, Sir William Brooks had written to the County Council with yet another new offer, clearly anticipating rejection of the petition.  His accusations were becoming increasingly erratic.  He now accused the Council of deliberate delay to achieve a fait accompli and called into question the personal integrity of the chairman.  He continued in typically melodramatic fashion.  “The Deeside District Committee may be in a legally unassailable position; but there is a moral future for them; and when the ills that are apprehended occur, there will be unpleasant reflections for those who attempt to ride rough shod over those who, after all, are the most concerned in the matter……  It will be with no enviable feeling that the man who has availed himself of a strict but unnecessary letter of the law may hear the piteous plaints of the orphan and the widow who consider that their scanty income has been diminished…”   The new offer was also typical of Brooks’ style.  “Upon the site, with all that thereon is, being assigned to me, I would relieve the Committee of all feu-duty on the site, and would return to them the entire amount of the building work upon the site, and I would give them £1000 to go away from Aboyne.”  The letter appears to have reached the Convener of the County Council, Mr Gordon, during the meeting.  He handed Brooks’ letter to Lt Col Innes and urged him to consider it even though, he admitted, there was no legal obligation to do so.

Sir William Brooks re-submitted this final offer to the Deeside District Committee in a new letter and it was considered at their meeting held on Saturday 6^th November 1897.  This letter made the amazing claim that because Brooks had spent a lot of money on Aboyne and given the village a supply of water from his estate “…you should have specially consulted me, to know whether I should approve of an Infectious Hospital being brought into the water area of Aboyne.”  Even now he saw himself as being somehow positioned above the emerging democratic structures of local government and he still laced his arguments with hyperbole at every opportunity. The Committee consulted their legal advisers, who reported on the legal aspects of the Brooks offer.  They complained that Brooks would not deal with them on straight business lines and on the basis of proper legal agreements.  “…the document in question is not a legal tender to them (Committee)”.  They advised that the Committee should only deal with legal obligations and not perceived moral ones, since the Brooks letter did not provide an alternative site, nor a guarantee to meet all additional costs, which was the only basis on which the Committee could proceed.  Any unmet additional cost might fall on the ratepayers or the members of the Committee personally.  The Chairman then moved that the actions of the Hospital Sub-Committee be approved and that they were unable to accept the latest offer from Brooks.  Lord Huntley moved an amendment that the offer made by Brooks should be accepted.  The vote was four for the amendment and eight for the motion and the opposition to the isolation hospital, now awaiting occupation at Bellwood, was finally at an end.

Was Sir William Cunliffe Brooks becoming ill?
At about this time (1898) Lord Huntley noticed that Sir William’s personality was changing.  He was becoming more depressive and more cantankerous, falling out with people with little cause.  Perhaps he was starting to suffer some age-related mental or neurological condition, which was at least partly responsible for his erratic and irrational behaviour concerning the siting of the isolation hospital?  After all, Sir William was a highly intelligent man who had been a barrister before he became a banker.  It is difficult to believe that in his prime he would have peddled demonstrable half-truths and untruths, as he did during the hospital dispute.  Nor is he likely to have failed to understand that his unwillingness fully to indemnify the county council for additional costs, if the hospital site were to be changed, would inevitably prevent alternative locations being considered.  Sir William died on 9^th June 1900 after a short illness which, at the time was attributed to getting hot and then cold at a bonfire celebration in Aboyne of a British victory in the Boer War.  However, reference to his death registration tells a fuller story.  In the three days that Sir William was confined to his bed before he died, he was attended by Dr Alexander Keith, the Aboyne GP, who was also the informant.  Dr Keith gave the cause of death as “Diabetes many years, Cardiac Asthenia 24 hours”.  It appears likely that the immediate cause of death was heart failure but that the condition may have been caused by long-standing and untreated type-2 diabetes.  The diabetes may well have had other insidious effects on Sir Williams health.  Although it is unwise to carry speculation much further, it is now known, for example, that type-2 diabetes is an independent risk factor for both Alzheimer’s Dementia and Vascular Dementia.

The Aboyne Isolation Hospital opens without fanfare
The hospital seems to have been opened in August 1898 under the charge of matron Miss M McKerron, without the fanfare that would normally accompany such occasions.  It clearly met a need because even Lord Huntly raised the question later that year as to whether the Deeside District Committee should be building further accommodation.  Perhaps the passage of time had allowed Lord Huntly to return to discharging his role as public representative, without having to consider familial obligations to Sir William Brooks.  The hospital was a reality, serving a real need and demonstrably without endangering public health.  Its turbulent genesis would now blur into obscurity with the passage of time.

Don Fox

20140421, 20150127
donaldpfox@gmail.com

What am I trying to achieve with this blog?

I have always had a vague curiosity about my family origins but, until I retired in 2007, I did not have the time or the knowledge to enter the world of the family historian.  The end of formal employment liberated me to satisfy my curiosity.  Now, 7 years later, I am hooked on the subject and I have built up a considerable knowledge about my own ancestral lines and others with whom I am closely related.

It did not take long for the initial euphoria associated with creating and expanding a family tree to cool and give way to a deeper curiosity about the lives of significant individuals in that tree.  Now I take much greater pleasure in trying to reconstruct people's lives in order to understand how those lives were shaped by events at an individual, family, local, national or international level.  This evolution of my interests has now further branched out into the social history of people, issues and events associated in some way with individuals in my family history database.

During my professional career I have worked as an academic geneticist, a university manager and as the chief executive of a science park.  Skills and experience gained in all these phases of my career have been helpful in equipping me to enter the historical realm.  Like all objective disciplines, these studies demand a reverence for facts and the collecting, ordering and analysis of information are essential processes for answering the questions generated by personal curiosity.  The result of this process has been the creation of a series of essays or papers.  I find the writing process invaluable in understanding what otherwise might seem like a long series of turgid facts, which lack a sense of humanity and the interaction of human motivations and emotions. Presently I send these papers to friends and relatives who might find them interesting.  They in turn can pass them on to their contacts.  Inevitably, one's hypotheses are tested by independent minds and sometimes found to be wanting.

Useful as this approach has been, the distribution of these papers has inevitably been limited.  They cannot possibly reach more than a small fraction of the people who might find them useful or stimulating.  So, I am now trying a new approach, with the hope of reaching a wider audience  I hope by placing these papers in the public domain they will reach people with whom I have a coincidence of interest, generating comment, adding facts and insight and generally illuminating events which, while of little concern to the wider study of history, are fascinating for those people whose forebears were central players.

I have often found that a useful start to researching a new topic is to Google that topic and see what is out there.  Hopefully, this blog will reveal others, perhaps many others, who share my interest in subjects as diverse as Clipper ships, the village of Aboyne and the philosophy of Family History.  Let the experiment begin!

Don Fox
20140522
donaldpfox@gmail.com 

William Cunliffe Brooks (1819 - 1900) and the Glen Tana Dream

William Cunliffe Brooks and the Glen Tana Dream

Introduction
WCB – William Cunliffe Brooks – was a wealthy Manchester banker who fell in love with Glen Tana, a sporting estate near Aboyne in North East Scotland, in 1869.  He subsequently made his home there and set about beautifying his surroundings through lavish spending.  His WCB monogram was inscribed on many of his works.  This vision of turning Glen Tana into an earthly paradise in which to live and entertain was sustained by WCB for more than thirty years until he died at Glen Tana House in 1900.  Sadly, although many of the artifacts that he created still survive in the glen and contribute to its charm today, WCB’s dream barely survived his demise.   Brooks insisted on the name of the glen being spelled “Tana” on dubious etymological grounds but, for simplicity, this spelling has been used throughout.  The story of WCB’s tenure in Glen Tana gives a fascinating insight into the personality of this gifted and generous, but ultimately flawed, visionary.

Origins of the Brooks family and its wealth
The Brooks family wealth originated in the burgeoning Lancashire cotton industry in the second half of the 18th century.  William Brooks, the grandfather of WCB, came from a farming background in the village of Whalley, near Clitheroe, in the Ribble valley.  William senior was born in 1762 and in 1792 he started a calico merchant business in Blackburn with a friend, Roger Cunliffe.  The Cunliffes were a wealthy family from Great Harwood, who had been mercers since Elizabethan times.  The two partners soon found that the customers of the calico business required banking services, which Cunliffe and Brooks proceeded to offer.  This innovation proved to be so successful that the banking business was soon able to trade independently and the Cunliffe, Brooks & Co Bank had arrived.

Samuel Brooks, son of the co-founder of the bank was born in 1793 and in due course entered the bank.  Samuel opened a branch of the bank in Manchester in 1819 and became a partner.  He was very successful, both as a banker and a property developer.  Large areas of housing in Manchester were developed by him, including Whalley Range, which was named after the home village of the Brooks family.  At the time of his death in 1864 he was reputed to be the richest man in Manchester and was known locally by the sobriquet “old stink o’ brass”.

Samuel’s son, William Cunliffe Brooks, was born in 1819 and studied at Rugby School, followed by Cambridge University, where he matriculated in 1838 and graduated BA in 1842.  He was admitted to the Inner Temple in 1840 and called to the Bar in 1848.  WCB’s father, Samuel, had wanted him to be admitted to a partnership at Cunliffe, Brooks & Co after he graduated.  When William reached his majority in 1840, Samuel asked his partner, James Cunliffe, if William could be admitted, but Cunliffe refused.  As a result, William pursued his career in the law for a number of years as a barrister on the Northern Circuit.  In turn, when James Cunliffe’s son Roger reached his majority in 1846 James asked Samuel Brooks to admit Roger.  The answer was predictable and in the negative!  There was then a “race for life” between the two partners, which was won by Samuel Brooks, since Cunliffe died first.  WCB was admitted as a partner to Cunliffe, Brooks & Co sometime between 1851 and 1856.

William Cunliffe Brooks married Jane Elizabeth Orrell in 1842.  The marriage produced two daughters who survived to adulthood, Amy, born in 1850 and Edith born in 1853.  Sadly, two boys, born in 1848 and 1851 and a girl, born in 1852, died in early infancy.  William’s wife, Jane, did not enjoy a long life, dying in 1865.  Thus William was left with the responsibility of bringing up two teenage girls.

WCB’s father, Samuel died in 1864.  Samuel’s five daughters each inherited property valued at £100,000.  His grandson, John Brooks, son of his deceased offspring, Rev John Brooks, inherited property valued at almost £200,000 and the balance of the estate was left equally to Samuel’s two surviving sons. William Cunliffe Brooks and Major Brooks.  Even more significant was the fact that William was now the sole partner in the Manchester bank of Cunliffe, Brooks & Co, which was still highly profitable, and in the London bank of Brooks & Co. 

WCB's love affair with Scotland is kindled
It was in the early 1860s that WCB started travelling to Scotland in August or September each year for the traditional country pursuits of that nation, grouse shooting, deer stalking and rod fishing for salmon.  His Manchester friend Tom Harrop Sidebottom had an estate in the Blackmount district of Argyll and WCB spent his first Scottish season there, subsequently returning several times.  In 1865 William Brooks rented a house near Ballachulish and for the 1866 season, he leased the whole of the shootings at Glenartney Forest, Perthshire, while residing at Drummond Castle.  By this time he had also started to adopt the social style of the local landed proprietors, entertaining the Earl and Countess of Mar, who were on honeymoon at the time.  WCB probably also spent the 1867 season in Scotland, since he gave two prizes for sheep classes at the Strathearn Agricultural Show.  In 1869 the Forest of Glentanner, near Aboyne, was available for let, due to the dire financial circumstances of the Aboyne Gordons and WCB took up the offer.  Charles Gordon, the 11th Marquis of Huntly, owner of the estate, was away on an extended visit to India at the time and the let was handled by his mother, the Dowager Marchioness, who was residing at another Huntly estate, Orton Longueville in Huntingdonshire.

The 11th Marquis of Huntly falls for Amy Brooks
WCB and his daughters Amy (19) and Edith (16) paid a social visit to the Dowager Marchioness at Orton in April 1869.  By chance, the 11th Marquis of Huntly, had arrived home unexpectedly the previous day.  It must have been love at first sight for Amy Brooks and Charles Gordon.  An announcement of the impending marriage appeared in the newspapers in May and the marriage took place at Westminster Abbey on 14th July 1869.  It was a very grand social affair, with Bishop Wilberforce presiding and the Prince and Princess of Wales being present at the ceremony.  The honeymoon was at Aboyne Castle, which WCB had hired for his own accommodation, while he was engaged in sport in Glen Tana.  Woodend House in the glen was then just a small shooting lodge and was inadequate in size and quality for William’s purposes.   The previous lessees of the glen had stayed in the Huntly Arms Hotel in Aboyne.  WCB graciously gave up the castle to the honeymooners and, being wealthy and used achieving his aims, immediately decided to extend Woodend House.

WCB engages George Truefitt
About the beginning of July 1869, William Brooks engaged George Truefitt, a London-based architect to plan the enlargement of the accommodation at Woodend House. Brooks had first met Truefitt about 1848 when the latter had entered an unsuccessful design for new premises for the Army and Navy Club in Pall Mall.  Truefitt had already been responsible for designing several new bank buildings for Cunliffe Brooks & Co, for example in Brown Street, Manchester in 1868.  This association and friendship between the two men was to last throughout the Brooks years at Glen Tana.  The Truefitt family were guests at the glen on a number of occasions and in 1883, when Mary Louisa Truefitt the architect’s daughter married, Brooks lent the couple Barlow Hall, his residence in Manchester, for their honeymoon.  Three major rooms were added by Truefitt to Woodend House, dining room, drawing room and billiards room, as well as servants’ quarters and a kitchen.  At the end of August, presumably after the work had been completed, WCB laid on a dinner for the men who had carried out the work, at the Huntly Arms in Aboyne.  Forty to fifty men had been constantly employed under the supervision of Mr Daniel, an Aberdeen builder.  The house was subsequently known as Glen Tana House.  WCB had laid down a marker for the Deeside locals that he had money and was prepared to spend it to achieve his ends.

WCB and Party Politics
It was also in 1869 that WCB first became a Conservative MP, representing the constituency of East Cheshire.  He continued in this role until 1885, when he lost his seat.  However, he was only briefly out of parliament before returning as MP for the Altrincham Division in 1886. WCB first leased Glen Tana and became an MP at about the same time but while his fascination with the glen grew with time, he never really took to parliamentary life.  Indeed, at the end of his period as an MP he told the housekeeper of his London home not to keep the blinds drawn when he was not in residence to try to conceal the paucity of time he was then spending in town.  He announced his intention to leave Parliament in 1890 and finally retired in 1892.  Eighteen sixty nine also saw WCB withdraw from direct day-to-day control of the Manchester bank, though he was still formally in control and insisted that the bank staff write to him daily concerning every detail of the business.

The Glen Tana project gets underweigh
In late 1869, William Cunliffe Brooks must have felt highly satisfied with his circumstances. He was now extremely wealthy and could afford to indulge his interests of philanthropy, country sports and politics. He had just entered the House of Commons and his elder daughter had married a dashing young member of the nobility, who was the owner of extensive estates in both Scotland and England.  It is not clear exactly when WCB’s love affair with Glen Tana developed.  Perhaps it was born out of the coincidence of Amy’s marriage to Charles Gordon and WCB’s love of country sports?  By living in Glen Tana he would be able to indulge his sporting passions, while at the same time being within easy reach of Manchester for bank business and London for his Parliamentary work, since the railway had been extended to Aboyne in 1857.  Also, he would be within a short carriage drive of Aboyne Castle where Amy and Charles lived.   And there was the prospect of grandchildren to come. 

Without question, Glen Tana was and is a beautiful place and Brooks described it as “One of the fairest spots on earth.”  It had about 30,000 acres of which about 8,000 or 9,000 acres were forest.  There was grouse shooting both inside the forest and on about 3,000 acres outside the forest.  The estate extended 6 or 7 miles along the Dee, including some of the best salmon pools on the river.  It also extended southwards for about 14 miles along the Tana glen, as far as Mount Keen.  Even at this early stage in his developing attachment to Glen Tana it seems likely that he had an outline plan in his mind for making Glen Tana his home.  His initial lease on the glen only extended for a season, yet he immediately sold off the sheep and cattle in the glen on the market stance in Aboyne in October 1869 "as he does not intend to keep cattle".  In that year he also spent a considerable sum on extending Woodend House. However, with the ownership of the glen being “in the family”, he probably felt secure that a longer lease would be likely to ensue and thus safeguard his investment.

The 11th Marquis of Huntly's financial problems
But the increasing involvement of WCB with Glen Tana and Aboyne must also have brought a growing insight into the financial circumstances of his son-in-law, Charles Gordon.  The 9th and 10th Marquises of Huntly, Charles Gordon’s grandfather and father, had run the estate into debt from which it had not fully recovered at the time of Charles’ accession to the marquisate in 1863 at the age of 16.  Charles did not assume control of the estate until he reached the age of majority in 1868.  He then embarked on a disastrous strategy of investing in the infrastructure of the estate using money, secured on most of his assets and borrowed at high rates of interest, at a time of growing agricultural depression.  This created a mounting debt which eventually forced him into bankruptcy in 1898.   Charles Gordon had consulted William Brooks  early in his marriage on business affairs, "Shortly after I was married there existed considerable excitement in the political world and there seemed to me to be reasons for my then entering actively on the field of politics and I wrote to our friend Mr Brooks that it seemed to me rather my duty to attend to politics than to the management of my own estates, which might be left to others.  I shall never forget the answer I received…….  “The man does best his duty to the State who attends first to the duties nearest to him in the position to which he has succeeded”.  Charles Gordon was still trying to run away from his responsibilities and WCB's sage advice had little impact.  WCB, highly successful in business, must have looked on with mounting disapproval at the inability of his son-in-law to get his debts under control, let alone run his estate profitably.
  

In spite of his dire financial circumstances, Charles Gordon, 11th Marquis of Huntly, did not moderate his personal style of living, entertaining lavishly, travelling abroad and continuing to hunt, shoot and fish.  He also enjoyed the turf, owning a number of racehorses.  Charles Gordon was an inveterate gambler, both on horse races and at cards and reputedly not a successful one.  Charles, who had been a friend of the Prince of Wales since university days, was his frequent companion across the green baize.   Sir William did not approve of Lord Huntly’s expensive habits and, when chided by friends for spending lavishly on the Glen Tana estate, said “I find my money is better spent in this way than going over horses’ tails or packs of cards.”  This looks like a barbed allusion to his son-in-law’s gambling losses.

WCB negotiates a new lease to Glen Tana

After leasing Glen Tana for the hunting season of 1869, WCB seems to have negotiated for a longer lease, which was prepared but not executed.  By 1871 William Brooks wanted a lifelease to the property but the entailment of the Huntly estates was apparently seen as an obstacle, so the Marquis of Huntly granted a lease for 20 years, or for William Brooks’ life, or for Huntly’s own life.  This lease history clearly shows that WCB’s long-term commitment to Glen Tana was made within 2 years of his initial visit in 1869.

Disposal of the 11th Marquis of Huntly's assets
After 1880 the trustees of the Aboyne estate were almost constantly selling off or leasing estate assets in order to recover the debts owed by Charles Gordon, the 11th Marquis of Huntly.  Since the estate had become disentailed in 1876, it was then open to the trustees to sell the land.  However, Britain was in the midst of a major agricultural recession and land values had dropped significantly.  The Aboyne estate was put up for sale at auction in 1885 but there were no bidders.  The following year the estate was again offered, unsuccessfully, for sale.  In 1887 the process was repeated but there were no acceptable bids, even for portions of the estate.  The trustees of the Aboyne estate must have been aware that there was one person in the district, William Cunliffe Brooks, who could afford to buy the estate and who had pressing personal reasons to interest him in Aboyne Castle and its policies and the Glen Tana estate.  At one stage during his tenancy, the trustees proposed to cut down some trees in Glen Tana but William paid them £10,000 not to do so, which may have made him a hostage to fortune.

WCB buys Aboyne Castle
William Brooks did not at the time own any property, though he held Barlow Hall, near Manchester, a house in Antibes in the South of France (which may have been designed by George Truefitt), a house in Grosvenor Square, London and Glen Tana estate on leasehold.  This was a principled stance by an astute money man. He judged that the capital value of these assets would be likely to depreciate in the coming years.  He resented buying Lord Huntly’s patrimonie for the benefit of his creditors but he also worried that his daughter, Amy, Marchioness of Huntly, who did not enjoy good health, might lose her home.  She added to the pressure on her father by writing, telling him that to live at Aboyne was the dearest object of her life.  WCB was not a man used to being pressured and his irritation was intense but eventually, in 1888, he bought Aboyne Castle and some surrounding land, which was then leased to Amy for one shilling a year, with an undertaking that she could reside there for life.  WCB’s will repeated this undertaking to Amy (but not to Lord Huntly) and obliged any new owner to maintain this burden.  In a letter from WCB to his Edinburgh solicitors, Messers Adam, he wrote “I know I must submit, but I feel very keenly what has happened – forced to buy an estate I did not care for, as the only means of restoring my dear daughter to the home which her husband had given up to creditors which he had created since his marriage.” 

The sale of Aboyne Castle did not solve Charles Gordon’s financial problems and the trustees of his estate, emboldened by their success with the castle sale, clearly sought to repeat the tactic with Glen Tana.  WCB’s lease to Glen Tana was due to expire about 1891 and he was again vulnerable to pressure.  Lord Huntly wrote to his father-in-law offering a renewal of the lease of Glen Tana but WCB wrote back refusing the offer and saying that he did not want to take a liferent to the property or to burden himself with a sporting estate.  However, it was the generally-held opinion of those who knew him that this was an empty threat and that he would not leave Glen Tana, which had become his home and his main interest in life. 

WCB buys the Glen Tana Estate
The Huntly trustees were ever-present in the background and WCB clearly viewed them as leeches.  He said that he could not make his home at Glen Tana if any other man bought it, in effect admitting that he would have to buy the estate to secure his future there.  He was also thinking about his succession.  He had hoped that his second wife, Jane, would live there after his death (she was much younger than WCB) but she did not wish to do so, which he said hurt him, perhaps because it showed that she did not fully share his commitment to the glen.  His thoughts then turned to his elder grandson, Ean Cecil, child of his younger daughter Edith.  His other daughter Amy, Marchioness of Huntly had no children and Ean would be his senior grandson.  But how could he get around the trustees, who were hoping he would eventually cave in and pay over the odds in a depressed market?  WCB made a half-hearted attempt to bid by proxy for the Glen Tana estate at auction in Edinburgh.  He was deeply antagonised by the pressure being exerted on him and hoped to secure the property at a more moderate price.  He then wrote to George Stewart, whom he had employed as clerk of works and general foreman at Glen Tana for 4 ½ years from 1870 and again for 1 ½ years from 1876, asking him to go to Edinburgh to bid on WCB’s behalf for Glen Tana.  There was obviously a significant level of trust and confidence between the two men.    Stewart was told to make no bid to begin with, but if anyone made a bid of £70,000, he might go up to £100,000 but that bid was only to be made at the last moment.  In the event, no offer was made for the property by anyone else, and Stewart then offered £60,000.  The offer was rejected and the reason given was that WCB had already offered £100k!  WCB eventually succumbed to his anxieties and bought Glen Tana for £120,000 in 1891, though he said he did so “with a knife at his throat”.  This was probably a reference to a letter he had received from the Huntly trustees giving him 10 days in which to make up his mind about the purchase, before they sold to a third party.  The news that William Cunliffe Brooks had bought Glen Tana must have been followed by a collective sigh of relief from the citizenry of the area and not least from Aboyne castle.

WCB begins his succession planning
Succession considerations also led to WCB buying the smaller estates of Ferrar and Gellan for £27,000 in 1899, which also belonged to the Marquis of Huntly, but lay on the north bank of the Dee, contiguous with the land Brooks now owned around Aboyne Castle.  He discussed the proposed purchase with Mr Milligan of his Aberdeen agents, Davidson and Garden.  WCB told Milligan that he proposed to leave his landholdings on the north side of the Dee to one of his grandsons.  At the time his intention was to leave these estates to Richard Cecil, the younger brother of Ean.  Milligan’s advice was to buy, so that WCB could add to the land around Aboyne castle which, at about 7,000 acres, was a bit limited.

The Chapel of St Lesmo
After the urgent work of summer 1869 to extend Woodend House, WCB’s next major project was to build the Chapel of St Lesmo in Glen Tana, incorporating an arch from a ruin, formerly a shooting box used by the Marquises of Huntly.  The total cost of the chapel was about £3,500.  William Cunliffe Brooks was a very religious man who had become a sidesman, then churchwarden, in Manchester by the early age of 26.  Morning prayers were part of his daily routine throughout life, so perhaps it was not surprising that creating his own place of worship should have been a high priority in the development of his northern idyll. The chapel was consecrated by the Episcopal Bishop of Aberdeen and Orkney early in January 1871.  Immediately after the consecration Mr Deakin and Miss Thomas, a Manchester couple, were married in St Lesmo’s.
  

WCB's daughter Ethel marries Lord Francis Cecil
St Lesmo’s Chapel was used for weekly worship by the servants at Glen Tana and by William Brooks when he was in residence.  It was also used for family religious occasions, though perhaps with lukewarm enthusiasm by some.  In September 1874 it was reported in the Aberdeen Journal that WCB’s younger daughter, Ethel, would marry Lord Francis Cecil, the second son of the Marquis of Exeter, at St Lesmo’s in a few weeks, but the marriage actually took place in London on 14th October 1874.   When WCB remarried to Miss Jane Davidson in 1879, the ceremony did take place at St Lesmo’s, though the new Mrs Brooks had wished to marry in either Edinburgh or London.  It appears that WCB’s opinion of the joys of the remote, bijoux St Lesmo’s Chapel was not shared by all those close to him.
  

By the time of Edith Brooks’ wedding in 1874, WCB’s elder daughter, Amy, had been married to Charles Gordon, 11th Marquis of Huntly, for five years but no pregnancy had yet been achieved. WCB must have been delighted when Edith and Francis Cecil quickly produced daughters in 1875, 1876 and 1879. However, William must have been both delighted and relieved when Edith produced two sons, Ean and Richard, in 1880 and 1882. WCB had a strong urge to plan ahead and especially to deal with his succession.  His two sons by his first wife had died soon after birth, so his succession planning had necessarily centred on his sons-in-law and his two grandsons.  However, WCB must have been questioning Charles Gordon’s ability to manage anything by the mid-1870s.  Charles had produced no heir and his inadequate commercial abilities had been confirmed.  WCB then seems to have turned his attention from Charles Gordon to his other son-in-law, Lord Francis Cecil.
 

Lord Francis Cecil suffers an early demise
Lord Francis Cecil was the second son of the Marquis of Exeter.  He lived at Stocken Hall, Rutland, which was located not far from Orton Longueville, the Marquis of Huntly’s English estate.  This proximity may have been the conduit by which Lord Cecil and Edith Brooks met.  Cecil pursued a career in the Royal Navy, which he entered at the age of 14 in 1865.  He was promoted to lieutenant in 1874 and flag lieutenant to the Commander-in-Chief at Devonport in 1878.  His military career did not make much progress and he left the Navy in 1884. In 1877 WCB introduced him as a partner in Cunliffe, Brooks & Co.  Up to that time WCB had been the sole partner in the bank, though he had given up day-to-day management in 1869 to his nephew John Brooks.  The report in the Aberdeen Journal stated that Lord Cecil "will take an active share in the management of the bank."  Sadly, this succession plan at the bank quickly fell apart.  It turned out that Lord Cecil would have been an ideal candidate for membership of the Drones Club.  All the Navy had done for him was to give him an addiction to sailing.  He spent the £30,000 his father had settled on him at marriage on buying a 40-ton racing cutter, the Sleuthhound, fitting her out, racing her and entertaining friends lavishly.  He depended on his wife, Edith, to pay for the upkeep of Stocken Hall, which was rented, from the £200,000 marriage settlement from her father.  In 1889 Lord Cecil was declared bankrupt.  At the proceedings he was described as a “Gentleman of no occupation”.  He had gross liabilities of more than £22,000, mostly unsecured and only about £300 of assets, essentially the net second hand value of Sleuthhound.  Some months before Lord Cecil’s bankruptcy he suffered a serious medical event which incapacitated him to the extent that he could not attend court for his examination in bankruptcy.  Death followed in June 1889 at the age of 38.  The most generous thing that the local newspaper could say of him in its obituary was that “….he was a man of many parts, and was much liked by those with whom he came in contact.”

Succession planning at the Bank
In 1888 WCB assumed his nephews Samuel Burd Brooks and John Brooks Clive Brooks as partners.  The reason for this move may have been that Lord Cecil was already ill, but it is also likely that the sailing Lord’s introduction to the bank had not been a success.  At WCB’s request both the new partners assumed the surname “Brooks”, so the perpetuation of the “Brooks” name seems to have mattered to William.  However, William Cunliffe Brooks remained firmly in control.  He owned 80% of the equity in the bank compared with 10% owned by each of his nephews. The 11th Marquis of Huntly wrote "It was his evident intention in his will that his banking business should descend to his nephews and be continued as a private bank: he was always telling me that trades preferred dealing with such instead of with a joint stock concern and a board of directors.  He was excessively proud of Brook & Co being the last private bank in Manchester and the neighbourhood.

George Truefitt is commissioned to carry out further projects
George Truefitt’s next major design for WCB was Fasnadarroch House, a fishing lodge on the South Deeside road west of the entrance to Glen Tana.  It was built in 1874, the year of Edith Brooks’ marriage to Francis Cecil and may have been a wedding present to the pair, though WCB retained ownership.  The house passed into the ownership of the Edith, Lady Francis Cecil, in 1900 by operation of WCB’s will dealing with his Scottish assets.  She had it extended for her use in 1901, when she could no longer stay at Glen Tana House, which had been leased by the trustees of WCB’s estate to Mr George Coats.  After the completion of St Lesmo’s Chapel and Fasnadarroch House, WCB embarked on a seemingly endless series of projects on the Glen Tana estate.  A photographic album, which belonged to George Truefitt, survives containing drawings of the house, dated from 1875 to 1885.  At this period Queen Victoria visited Glen Tana to look over the house.  Sadly, WCB was absent at the time but Truefitt was in attendance.  The Queen took a picnic tea while she was there and Truefitt marked the location with a carved stone, inscribed “The Queen’s Seat, 1874”. 

WCB’s manner of working was to employ an enormous number of day-labourers and craftsmen, variously estimated at 200 – 300, almost continuously to deliver his plans.  He closely supervised the work from start to finish.  This style of micro-management often led to the plans being changed during delivery and must have been frustrating for his architect.  However, the achievement of personal satisfaction was his overriding priority and cost did not seem to matter. When WCB was engrossed in a development project, he sometimes did not come home to dinner.  Late in the year, as the weather deteriorated, he would carry on with his projects until outside work had to stop.  Then he would sometimes go to his house in Antibes for a break.  His annual expenditure on Glen Tana was estimated by several people closely associated with the work and by Brooks himself at £20,000 per year.  The bills were all settled by the Manchester bank.  In 1877 an article in the Aberdeen Journal praised WCB for making such marked improvements to Glen Tana, describing the shooting lodge as “one of the finest residences in the North”.  It noted that there were now more deer and more people living in the glen than previously, that the roads had been improved, that arable land was now protected from game by high fencing and that the houses of the tenantry had been modernised.  It was also in this year that operations had begun to further extend Glen Tana House by the construction of a grand ballroom and a bowling alley, to the plans of George Truefitt.  By 1890 Glen Tana House was very large and magnificently appointed, though its overall architectural appearance lacked proportion, with a forest of turrets and chimneys.  This effect probably resulted from the fact that the house had grown like Topsy over a period of 20 years.

Adjoining the house and supporting its function as a palatial home and venue for entertaining and impressing guests, many other facilities were built by WCB, often incorporating the latest technology.  Again, cost was not a constraint.  In addition to accommodation in the house, there was a separate building, called “The Barracks”, for guests which containing 12 bedrooms, and stables for at least 18 horses.  These two facilities were estimated to have cost £15,000. Brooks kept 12 horses and about 12 carriages of various sorts for the transport of himself and his guests.  Other houses and shooting lodges cost about £26,000, a riding room near the stables £12,000, a blacksmith’s shop £600, a joiner’s workshop £800, kennels and cottages £3,500 and deer and other fences £10,000.

The ornamental gardens at Glen Tana were almost entirely the creation of WCB, assisted from 1898 by the landscape architect Thomas Mawson.  Brooks also obtained the skeleton of a 40ft Greenland whale, which he kept in the grounds.  The artificial lake existed from before Brooks’ time but it is thought that he added some ponds, possibly for the rearing of salmon.  WCB also formed a 50 acre meadow on low ground in view of the house, called the Deer Sanctuary, which was trenched, levelled and sowed and where the deer were not hunted.  This feature could be irrigated by cisterns, fed by springs through iron pipes, for when the weather was dry in summer.  Sewage from the Home Farm steading and the houses was added to these cisterns, to improve the fertility of the land in the Sanctuary.  The idea for this utilisation of sewage was probably derived from the irrigation farm created to treat the sewage of Aboyne before it entered the Dee.
William Brooks also introduced a turbine for powering a threshing machine at Home Farm and a dynamo to supply electricity to Glen Tana House, both water-driven.

In the earlier part of his occupation of Glen Tana, WCB expended money mostly on the house and amenities around the house, but latterly his attention and expenditure shifted more to the farm houses and farm buildings on the estate.  Pierre Fouin, who was born in Glen Tana, has made a detailed study of the buildings and other artefacts constructed in the district by Brooks.  Although it is known that some farm buildings received attention before 1890, the year that Brooks bought Glen Tana, it is clear from the dates carved into farm buildings in the glen that work on these structures proceeded with particular intensity from 1890 onwards.  The ornamentation used was unique to farm houses in Scotland.  In the case of Corntulloch farm on the Glen Tana estate, which appears to have been completed in 1894, Aboyne photographer, R Milne, took “before” and “after” pictures.  The original farm was an attached building with the house and steading combined but the new structure had a separate house enclosed by a wall.

Tower of Ess and Glen Tana School
About 1887 WCB built the Tower of Ess at the entrance to the Glen Tana estate from the South Deeside road, clearly intending to make a statement to visitors and guests about the important status of the place they were about to enter.  Further work was carried out in the same area in 1894 to widen the Bridge of Ess and realign its approaches, all paid for by WCB.  In 1896 WCB commissioned George Truefitt to design a new school and schoolmaster’s house for Glen Tana, which was built at a cost of £2,600.  It is situated on the South Deeside road, near to the entrance to Glen Tana at the Bridge and Tower of Ess. The cornerstone of the new building was laid by Lady Brooks at the end of October of that year.  She was presented with a silver trowel by Francis Sandison, Provost of Aboyne and landlord of the Huntly Arms hotel, to mark the occasion.  The school was officially opened by WCB on the last day of December 1897.

WCB extends and renovates Aboyne Castle and builds the "Coo Cathedral"
In 1888, much against his instinct and inclination, WCB had bought Aboyne Castle in order to secure it as a home for his elder daughter, Amy.  Despite his negative feelings concerning the purchase of the Aboyne estate, he immediately set about upgrading the castle and its facilities as he had previously done with Glen Tana.  Over the next decade it is estimated that WCB spent over £35,000 on the castle and its amenities.  George Truefitt was again the architect employed to draw up the plans.  In addition to extensive re-modelling of the castle itself, the approaches to both sides of the castle were re-made and re-worked.  An avenue of trees was planted from the village to the castle, new lodges were built at both east and west entrances and boundary walls improved.  Most of Aboyne village was within the Aboyne estate and Brooks was also responsible for the construction of new buildings there, such as buildings in The Square, adjacent to the railway station and Birse Lodge.  He also fenced the Green in the centre of Aboyne.

Truefitt was also responsible, in 1889, for the design of a large cattle steading near the Castle.  In his speech at the celebratory dinner after completion of the project, the Marquis of Huntly said “I have been rather chaffed in connection with this beautiful building in which we are now assembled, and which is one of the marks that Sir William will leave.  It has been called, by those who delight to chaff, a cow cathedral, (Laughter)…”.   “Coo Cathedral” is the Doric nickname of the building, which sticks even today. It was 205 ft by 85 ft, built of granite and cost £6000.  It could accommodate 40 cows and several pedigree bulls.  It also contained a granary, turnip shed and the head cattleman's house.  Its floors were of concrete and a tramway for carrying cattle food ran down the middle of the building.  When the work had been completed, WCB entertained 300 workmen from the Aboyne and Glen Tana estates to dinner, which was held in the steading.  Each workman received a Christmas present of a half pound of tea, together with a Christmas card.

The “Coo Cathedral” must have been constructed for the accommodation of the Marquis of Huntly’s herd of Aberdeen-Angus cattle and both WCB and Lord Huntly are known to have had some input into the design of the building.  The herd known, locally as “Doddies”, was the Marquis’ pride and joy.  He was a well-known breeder of these cattle, a frequent winner of prizes at agricultural shows and the first president of the Aberdeen-Angus Society.  However, because of the Marquis’s financial embarrassments, there had been frequent sales of cattle from his herd in recent years to raise funds.  The herd was still in existence at the date that the “Coo Cathedral” was built but it would finally be dispersed in 1899 after Charles Gordon’s bankruptcy.  This grand cattle shed typified the Brooks approach, with the structure being wildly over-designed and over-engineered for its purpose and for a tenant who paid no rent!   It could not at the time have been viable as a commercial investment, though the present owner, the 13th Marquis of Huntly, must be pleased to have it, as it has been pressed into use as an attractive wedding venue!

WCB overrides his friends' advice
Several of WCB’s friends and professional advisers, over the years, counselled him against his expenditure on elaborate and therefore expensive estate buildings.  Mr G Walker, who surveyed the Glen Tana estate in 1883, told Brooks that his tenants could not afford to pay interest on such buildings.  Admiral Sir Arthur Farquhar, his friend who lived at Drumnagesk, told him he would not get a return on his money and Sir Allan McKenzie, his landed neighbour in Glen Muick to the west, told him he was making a mistake putting up fine buildings in the countryside.  Brooks was perfectly well aware of this fact.  At the celebratory dinner on the inauguration of the “Coo Cathedral”, he quoted from his father, Samuel and then elaborated on his own approach “"Take care William, it’s a very expensive amusement.” (Laughter and cheers) Now he was a very great man, and I imitate him as much as I can, but there is one remarkable feature which I cannot compass.  He was always willing to spend the present shilling to get the future guinea; I spend the shilling, but I don’t get the future guinea (Loud laughter and cheers) But at the same time, I do get that which is better than all the guineas in the world – the power of doing an immense amount of good in the district in which I live.”  (Cheers)
  

WCB remarries to Jane Davidson
In 1877, Lt Col Sir David Davidson and his family went to live in a villa near to Glen Tana. Inevitably William Cunliffe Brooks, whose first wife had died in 1865, met Jane, Sir David’s daughter.  In spite of a significant difference in age, they were attracted to each other and married in 1879, when William was 59 and Jane was 27.  Sometime during the marriage, WCB put £50,000 in trust to provide an income for Jane during her life, in the event that she survived her husband and to hold the capital for any children of the marriage. The marriage produced no children.

WCB's increasing commitment to Glen Tana
William Cunliffe Brooks had a great love of entertaining, of charitable works, of showing off his achievements and of supporting causes and institutions with which he was in sympathy.  These separate categories often overlapped with each other and WCB’s pursuit of them had been evident throughout his adult life and all his places of residence.  Progressively after 1869, when he first leased Glen Tana, WCB spent more and more of each year living in the glen, as his interest in politics and the bank waned as his commitment to the Glen Tana project intensified.  Between 1894 and 1899 he spent, on average, 13 days/year at Barlow Hall, Manchester, 41 days at Grosvenor Square, London and 267 days at Glen Tana.  Jane, his new wife supported him enthusiastically in his socialising.  Above the door to Glen Tana House was an inscription in Latin, which WCB happily translated for guests - “The door is open but the heart is more so”.  WCB was in his element!  To the people of Aboyne and district it must have appeared that most of WCB’s expenditure was in their area.  However, between 1891 and 1900 WCB donated more than £12,000 to charities in England, compared with £1,300 in Scotland.  Aboyne folks probably did not know and could not grasp just how wealthy he was, his income from the bank being £30,000 - £50,000 per year and his income from estates around Manchester bringing in another £20,000 per year.
 

WCB's charitable works
Lord Rosslyn rather acidly christened William Brooks “BB” which he said stood for “bursting with benevolence”.  Brooks was a rather rotund figure and his record of giving was both extensive and very public.  He had a fondness for children, travelling around the Aboyne district with a pocketful of sweets, in case he should come across youngsters in his peregrinations.  In 1896, WCB gave an 1895 issue penny to every scholar at Aboyne Public School via Rev Gray, the headmaster.  Even before he became proprietor of Glen Tana, WCB and his wife had been in the habit of entertaining the local schoolchildren to a soiree and Christmas tree.  In 1891, the first year with WCB as owner of Glen Tana, it was on an unusually large scale, being held in the ballroom, with tea being served in the adjacent bowling alley.  A separate celebration for the 36 Inchmarnoch children was held on Hogmanay.  Each child at Glen Tana and Inchmarnoch received a present of a winter cloak and two interesting books, a cravat and a pair of mittens.  In those days winter in the glen could be severe.  In 1892 WCB laid on a production of Cinderella for the children of both Glen Tana Public School and Dinnet Sabbath School.  Similarly, in 1893, local children were treated to tea in the bowling alley and entertainment with a magic lantern in the music room.  Each received a present appropriate to his or her age.  However, WCB could not resist impressing his guests. On display on the billiards table were over 300 Christmas cards and presents sent by friends.  He revelled in his popularity.

WCB was also a regular supporter of medical charities, such as Manchester and Salford Lying-in Hospital for Diseases of Women and Children, Blackburn Infirmary Building Fund, The National Orthopaedic Hospital and Aberdeen Hospital for Incurables.  He did not generally support individuals but he made an exception in the case of Thomas Taylor's Relief Fund, of which he was appointed treasurer in 1852. Thomas Taylor would have been described as a member of the deserving poor.  He had a disabled daughter and an aged wife, who were dependent on him and, when he lost his sight at the age of 65, he had no means of supporting his family.  For nearly 40 years "he was actively engaged after hours in counselling and advising the working classes to habits of temperance, frugality and thriftiness."  WCB clearly thought him a worthy case.

Another popular theme to Brooks’ benevolence was the provision of new schools and churches, especially in areas of Manchester developed by Brooks, pere et fils, contributions to church repair funds and contributions to educational and self-help organisations, such as Manchester Free Library and Pendleton Mechanics Institution.  He also supported the Gordon Highlanders, the local regiment in Aberdeenshire and local military Volunteers.  In 1895, WCB arranged at his own expense for a lecturer on chicken keeping, Mr Birch, the poultry expert from Cheshire County Council, to come up from England to help local farmers in the Aboyne area, who were suffering from the agricultural depression, to find a new source of income.  Also in 1895 he donated £1000 to the Aberdeen University Extension Scheme, which was being fronted by his son-in-law, Lord Huntly, then Lord Rector of the University.

William Cunliffe Brooks was very keen on country sports, which was the reason for his first visit to Scotland.  At Glen Tana he and his many guests enjoyed mainly deer stalking, grouse shooting and salmon fishing.  Newspaper reports of the results of these activities give the impression that the size of the kill was the main objective, mass slaughter frequently being the outcome of a day’s sport.  As a result WCB had abundant supplies of grouse, venison and salmon and he often made gifts from the haul to needy organisations or others that he supported.  For example, he would send both salmon and 10 dozen bottles of wine to Cheetham Hill Bowling Club, Manchester, where he was the Father of the Club, for their annual dinners.  He distributed venison to the poor and others in the Aboyne locality, often several times in a season and at Christmas,1898, WCB presented each of the railway station officials at Aboyne with a haunch of Red Deer venison.  William Brooks was opposed to the public having free access to roam the hills, because of the potential to disrupt deer stalking.  The “Access to Mountains Bill” was at that time wending its way through Parliament.  A stinging letter was published in the Aberdeen Journal complaining about the negative impacts of exclusion on the traditional collection of blueberries by local people and the discouragement of the growing Aboyne tourist trade.  Perhaps as a result of this letter, he opened the hills on the Glen Tana estate for a day or two each autumn to allow locals to pick berries.

William Brooks was ever mindful of the needs of the sick and poor in the district and annually made a donation of funds, usually £10, to each church minister in Aboyne and Dinnet for distribution to needy members of the congregation.  Although he was an adherent of the Church of England, he treated all Christian denominations (Church of Scotland, Free Church and Roman Catholic Church) equally.  In late 1879, WCB authorised Mr Ogg, bank agent, Aboyne, to supply the poor in Aboyne and neighbourhood with provisions which he considered necessary for the time.  Tea, sugar, bread and coals were distributed.  His Glen Tana housekeeper was instructed to write to him each day he was away giving a report on the status of sick people in the glen. 

WCB and mid-Deeside social life
WCB was a generous and frequent entertainer.  Indeed, Glen Tanar House was well equipped with guest bedrooms and the means to entertain both lavishly and for large numbers.  His sporting friends, some local, many from a distance, often stayed with him for long periods of time.  The Glen Tana estate lands included fishing on the Dee all the way from Ballater to Aboyne and possessed some of the best salmon pools on the river.  Throughout the season WCB gave many entertainments, such as garden parties, tennis parties and croquet parties.  The artificial lake was used for curling in winter and the curlers were usually entertained after a session.  He was a member of the Aboyne Curling Club and donated to it every year.  Dr Farquharson, the local MP, confirmed the importance of WCB’s social role when he said Glen Tana was the pivot around which the social life of the district revolved.

WCB the public figure
William Cunliffe Brooks derived great joy from public adulation.  He was never more  happy than when he was opening a public event, such as a church bazaar or the annual Aboyne flower show held at the same as the Aboyne Highland Games in early September.  Every such occasion was an opportunity for him to address the public, often humorously but, on occasions, on serious issues of a political nature.  No opportunity was missed to hold a celebration and his generosity was always to the fore, often accompanied by his bon mots.  The completion of a building, such as the “Coo Cathedral”, summer picnics for servants and employees, an annual Ghillies’ Ball, Christmas celebrations for local children, the introduction of a turbine-driven threshing machine, all were opportunities for WCB to shower largesse on the locals, whether by presents, dinners, magic lantern shows or balls and he seemed to derive genuine pleasure from the process.  Of course the local society was one dominated by a few large landowners, even before his arrival and the lower orders “knew their place” and knew how to curry favour with the landed proprietors, pouring adulation on their wealthy betters at every opportunity.  WCB readily joined the top of this social pyramid and played the part with ease.  He even aped his Scottish landed neighbours to some extent.  In 1878 he engaged Charles Ewen as his piper, a role Ewen fulfilled until Brooks’ death.  Every morning Ewen, dressed in Gordon tartan, would inflate his bagpipes on the dot of seven and march around Glen Tana House noisily to announce the start of a new and inevitably busy day.

Important family events were always occasions for celebration, lubricated on the one hand by Brooks’ money and on the other hand by public adulation.  In late 1875, Lord Francis Cecil, his wife Edith and their baby daughter, Ethel Frances Sophia, made a first visit to Glen Tana since their marriage, arriving to much cheering and waving by both locals and estate workers.  On Thursday 4th November, they were entertained to a grand ball and supper, with 500 guests, given by the tenants, servants and workmen at Glen Tana in a marquee erected close to Glen Tana House.  On the following Monday WCB threw another ball in return for the one given by staff.  When WCB married Jane Davidson in 1879, the citizens of Aboyne presented him with an illuminated address and a silver claret jug.  In return, he entertained his tenantry to dinner in a marquee on the Green.

Baronetcy bestowed on WCB
William Cunliffe Brooks finally received the public recognition he probably most craved when in February 1886 the Queen bestowed a baronetcy on him.  This award was not related to his work on the Glen Tana estate or his charitable work in either England or Scotland, or his commercial success with Cunliffe, Brooks & Co, but for political work for the Conservative Party in Lancashire. Ironically, this was the part of his career from which he derived least pleasure.  On Friday 12th February, 60 of WCB's servants, tenants and labourers assembled in the evening at Glen Tana House to testify their appreciation at the award of a baronetcy to their laird.  In spite of the snow they constructed a bonfire on the summit of Creag-na-Sleage, a nearby hill and lit it at 7.30pm.  A reception was then held in the ballroom and everyone drank to the health of Sir William and Lady Brooks.  Dancing followed and was kept up to an early hour.  His baronetcy was also celebrated by the presentation of addresses by the principal tradesmen of Aberdeen, who clearly derived much business from Glen Tana and by the inhabitants of Dinnet and Aboyne.  The somewhat gushing addresses were presented in the billiards room by the Rev Michie, Minister at Dinnet, Rev Andrew Gray, schoolmaster, Aboyne and Mr John Hay of Messers Hay and Lyall, Aberdeen.  Luncheon in the ballroom followed the eulogising.

WCB the Royalist
WCB was staunchly royalist and must have regretted being away from the glen when the Queen dropped in on her neighbour in 1874.  William Brooks was a staunch supporter of the Primrose League, formed in 1883 to promote God, the Monarchy, the Empire and Conservative values and he hosted  the annual meeting of the local branch (“Habitation”), which was always well attended, at Glen Tana for many years.  The League was very popular and had attracted over 1 million members nationally by 1900.  Eighteen eighty seven was the year of the Queen’s Jubilee.  She had been on the throne for 50 years and celebrations were held in every city, town and village in the land.  WCB laid on a picnic for 600 guests at Glen Tana and presented every guest with a Jubilee medal.  Sir William and Lady Brooks must have been very proud when they were invited to attend the Queen’s Garden Party at Buckingham Palace in July 1896. In the next year WCB paraded his royalist credentials on the occasion of Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee, when he sent a book on the life of the monarch to every child in the public schools of the Aboyne area.

WCB and the mid-Deeside economy
The constant employment of 200 – 300 men from the neighbourhood over a period of 30 years must have had an enormous impact on the economic well-being of Aboyne and its environs, since most employed men, in turn, supported a wife and family.  The population of the parish of Aboyne and Glen Tana was only about 1,200.  It is easy to understand why Sir William was so popular, since the area became almost addicted to the benefits of WCB’s seemingly never-ending projects.  In 1894 Sir William and Lady Brooks took a long holiday, travelling by boat to the West Indies.  There was some anxiety during this absence, probably because projects started to dry up and consequently employment declined.  Their return in April 1894 was marked by the presentation of yet another illuminated address by Provost Sandison at Aboyne railway station in recognition of his many good works, including the recent provision of a public water supply to Aboyne.  Referring to the stream of improvements at Glen Tana, Francis Sandison said, “They have been the means of bringing bread, health and happiness to the fireside of many a hard-working man.”   WCB’s son-in-law, Charles Gordon declined an invitation to the event saying that he had “three important committee meetings in Aberdeen” that day.  Perhaps he could not stand being overshadowed by his nouveau riche father-in-law?   In 1896, WCB’s importance in creating employment in the area was acknowledged by another local landowner, Sir John Clarke, Laird of Tillypronie, on the occasion of WCB opening a bazaar and Highland gathering in support of the Logie-Coldstone Public Hall Fund.  He said that Sir William was well-known up and down the Dee valley but especially by those "twa-mile roun' Dinnet Brig", across which the workmen employed in connection with his innumerable improvements might be seen returning home to Cromar on their bicycles in the evenings.

In early 1900, Sir William and Lady Brooks took an extended stay of more than 3 months at Barlow Hall in Manchester, which was not usual and their absence was noted locally in Aboyne.  Some of his joiners were first paid off, so he knew he would be away for some time. The Aberdeen Journal commented, "They had been absent since January and the Glen was getting dull without them.  The genial baronet has for long been the backbone of Aboyne and surrounding district." and “The return of Sir William and his good lady to Glen Tana is anxiously looked for by not a few”.

WCB's personality
WCB had a complex personality.  On the one hand he was highly intelligent, sociable, generous, caring, highly individualistic and very successful in business but, on the other hand, he was a workaholic, a micromanager, overly sensitive to criticism, autocratic, arrogant, insensitive to advice and never apologised directly, seeing it as a mark of weakness.  He had a short temper and often made threats in the heat of the moment which, when the red mist passed from his eyes, he did not deliver, for example declaring he would sell Glen Tana and buy the Isle of Arran if he did not get his way over the siting of the Aboyne Isolation Hospital.  He also gave contradictory statements to different people, such as the location of his desired place of burial.  A good example of his arrogance concerned the spelling of place names in the glen.  Probably with no more knowledge of the Gaelic than access to a Gaelic dictionary, he proclaimed that Glen Taner (or Tanar), which has no meaning in Gaelic, should actually be “Tana”, meaning “shallow” and that the corruption was due to “Cockneydom”.   Similarly, with Bridge of Ess at the entry to the glen, he asserted that the spelling should be “Eas” (ravine in Gaelic), not “Ess” (ash in Gaelic), another alleged corruption by southerners!  Although he was indulged by almost everyone in his idiosyncratic spellings at the time, including the Aberdeen Journal, his assertions did not survive his death.  Pointedly, his son-in-law, the 11th Marquis of Huntly, in his autobiography “Milestones” used the spelling “Glentanar” thoughout, except for slipping up once, when he used Brooks’ spelling “Tana”!

As time went on, WCB’s personality changed.  His wealth and his pleasure at exercising power progressively turned him into a despot and he increasingly fell out with friends, often over relatively trivial matters.  The Marquis of Huntly warned him that, as a result, he was becoming surrounded by slaves and sycophants.  From about 1898 he had visibly lost his vivacity and bonhomie and he seemed depressed.  As his landscape architect, Mr Mawson, found it did not take much to put Sir William in a foul mood.  During a dispute with the Deeside District Committee over the siting of the Aboyne Isolation Hospital, Sir William abandoned truth and rational argument when the case started to go against him, resorting instead to lies and distortions, pressure on tenants to back him and the writing of letters to the Aberdeen Journal supporting himself, but written under a series of pseudonyms.  It was a sad descent from the heights of achievement he had reached as a barrister and as a banker.

WCB's ill-health
William Cunliffe Brooks suffered from adult-onset diabetes for many years, as had his father, Samuel Brooks.  WCB was looked after by Aboyne GP, Dr Keith, who prescribed a strict diet to counteract the diabetic condition and the Marquis of Huntly ascribed WCB’s change of personality to the diet.  Today it seems much more likely that the causation was indeed the disease, which is now known to be linked to such conditions as Alzheimer’s Disease and vascular dementia.

Succession revisited
Succession was an issue which had bedevilled WCB for many years and his succession plan was repeatedly revised as various nominated successors proved to be not up to the tasks that he had mapped out for them.  When he finally arrived at grandson Ean Cecil as his nominated successor at Glen Tana, WCB, wanting him to be brought up carefully, warned him of the dangers of drink (WCB was hostile to the excess consumption of alcohol, though he kept well-stocked cellars at his residences) and made him take the pledge, clearly trying to equip him for the task of managing the precious Glen Tana estate.  As part of his succession planning, WCB wrote many wills, 260 according to his son-in-law, Charles Gordon, not all of which were implemented.  This excessive will-writing and, in his final will, the minute detail of his instructions to his executors and trustees, is reminiscent of his frequent changes to buildings during the course of construction.  He had advised Charles Gordon not to rewrite his will after the age of 70, only to rewrite his own will many times after that age!  Perhaps also WCB realised that his innings was coming to a close and he had only limited time to act.  This was the reason why he was unusually absent from Glen Tana for three months early in 1900, staying at Barlow Hall.  In fact he was writing and rewriting his wills with the active participation of his Manchester lawyer, Mr Wood, the final versions (there were two wills) both being dated 6th April 1900.  The Marquis of Huntly claimed that even after that date WCB drafted further wills of a different character, but they were not signed.

WCB falls victim to the Second Boer War celebrations
In the early months of 1900 the middle phase of the Second Boer War was coming to a conclusion in South Africa, with the relief of towns which had been under siege by the Boers.  Ean Cecil was serving there with the Lincolnshire Regiment and William Brooks had a keen interest in the progress of the fighting.  On Saturday 19th May, news reached Britain of the relief of Mafeking. In Aboyne flags were flown on many of the buildings and church bells were rung.  Baden-Powell and his comrades were praised everywhere.  A concert and dance were held in the evening and at 10 o’clock, “when night set in” there was a firework display on the Green, with many people present. Effigies of the Boer leaders Kruger and Steyn were burned in tar barrels and kicked all over the Green. Provost Sandison called for three cheers for “The Queen” and “The British Army” and the large crowd responded with enthusiasm.

About two weeks later, the news of the Battle of Paaderberg and the occupation of Pretoria by British forces under Lord Roberts reached Britain on Tuesday 5th June and WCB immediately contributed to the organisation of celebrations in Aboyne.  He gave orders for fuel to be collected from his woods for a bonfire on the Green the next day.  He also sent a large collection of fireworks for the celebrations.  After lighting a bonfire at Glen Tana, he and Lady Brooks and party drove to Aboyne and, at the request of Provost Sandison, he lit the bonfire there.  A large crowd of locals and summer visitors were present and this was an unmissable opportunity for WCB to give a rousing, patriotic speech.  He harangued the crowd, giving a history of the war, a critique of Government policy and praising the army.  WCB was loudly cheered and the National Anthem was sung with fervour.  He stayed for an hour, baking himself in front of the bonfire and then departed for Glen Tana in an open carriage.  WCB arrived home shivering and went to bed, but was unable to eat.  The following day his symptoms worsened.   Dr Keith was summoned but could do nothing for him and WCB died peacefully at 3pm on Saturday afternoon in the presence of Lady Brooks.  His son in law, Charles Gordon, rather uncharitably, said he was “a victim of his own foolhardiness”.

Funeral and aftermath
The funeral was held the following Thursday in St Lesmo’s Chapel at 2pm.  Bells were tolled in both the Established and Free churches and all shops in Aboyne were closed for the afternoon.  Thoughts of local people quickly turned to the impact WCB’s death would have on the district.  It was immediately clear that there would be a loss of employment for a good many workers and tradesmen in the district, leading to a loss of population, especially in Glen Tana.  Early in August WCB’s carriages and harness were sold. There was substantial interest in the sale and it took 7 carriages to carry all interested parties up the glen from Aboyne.  High prices were realised, in total about £500.  There was also much speculation about the contents of WCB’s will and who would inherit his wealth and property.

WCB's Wills
During discussions over many years on the content of his will, with both his Aberdeen and Manchester lawyers, two issues had repeatedly been raised.  Firstly, should he have one will or two, since the bank, of which he was the senior partner was located in England, along with substantial holdings of property, while the Glen Tana and Aboyne estates lay in Scotland?  Secondly, was he a domiciled Englishman or Scotsman, which would determine whether his will or wills would be interpreted under Scottish law or English law?  On the matter of domicile the advice received was clear; he was a domiciled Englishman, in spite of spending much of the year living in Scotland.  On the issue of the number of wills, he received conflicting advice.  Two wills would allow him to deal with his Scottish and English estates separately but could also lead to confusion and possibly challenge if there was any inconsistency between them.  After changing his mind several times WCB eventually plumped for two wills on the advice of his English lawyer, Mr Wood.

WCB had settled £200,000 on each of his daughters and their respective husbands on marriage, he said in his English Will “as their fortunes”.  Also, about 1898-99, he made a settlement of £50,000 on his second wife, Lady Brooks “for expenses consequential on my decease”, which yielded her an income of about £1500/year.  He had also made money gifts to many people, including servants, on reaching each successive birthday and in particular he made large gifts on his 70th and 80th anniversaries.  WCB repeatedly said that this pattern of giving was done with the intention of him enjoying seeing people deriving pleasure from his gifts while he was alive.

Sir William Brooks nominated the same five people as trustees and executors of both wills, his nephews Henry Brooks Gaskell, Frank Gaskell and Frank Tootal Broadhurst, his longstanding friend Tom Harrop Sidebottom, MP and his Manchester solicitor Henry Wood.  All accepted the role, except Edward Tootal Broadhurst, who renounced probate and its execution, probably realising that it would be an onerous role.  The gross value of WCB’s estate was almost £1,252,000.

Many specific items in the possession of WCB were bequeathed to relatives and friends and money gifts were made to his most important retainers at Glen Tana, his employees at the bank and his executors and trustees.  Of his closest relatives, Lady Brooks was left a signed photograph of Queen Victoria and Princess Beatrice, clothes, linen, paintings, silverware, wedding and personal presents, jewellery and furniture.  The Marchioness of Huntly received furniture, a marble bust of herself and books but most importantly, life residency, at no rent, of Aboyne Castle.  Lady Francis Cecil inherited pictures, furniture and crockery but most importantly, Fasnadarroch House and its surrounding land.  None of these three ladies, who had been central to WCB’s life, received any general share in his residual English and Scottish assets, which were considerable.

The Marquis of Huntly’s creditors were a constant source of irritation to WCB and were probably one of the reasons why he did not treat Amy Gordon and her husband more liberally.  He told his friend, Sir Arthur Farquhar, that he did not intend to leave the Marchioness of Huntly money on his death as he thought that interest of any money settled on Lady Huntly might go to “the Jews”, in Farquhar’s words.  This appears to be a reference to the Marquis’ creditors.

The residue of the English estate was left collectively in trust to his grandchildren, the children of daughter Edith, Lady Francis Cecil - Edith, Ethel, Violet, Ean and Richard Cecil and Esterel Tillard.  It was left in trust for the benefit of any or all the grandchildren on reaching the age of 21, or, in the case of the girls, marrying.  Advances could be made for the purposes of education, training or starting a business.  Additionally, Ean Cecil inherited the residue of WCB’s Scottish estate, essentially Aboyne Castle, Glen Tana and their surrounding lands and fishing rights, which would be conveyed to him in its entirety on him reaching the age of 25 in 1905.  Until that time, the income from these estates was for the benefit of Ean Cecil and his younger brother, Richard.

WCB's Wills cause unhappiness to his wife and elder daughter
The news of the contents of the two wills was badly received both at Glen Tana House and at Aboyne Castle.  The disgruntled daughter, Amy and the disgruntled wife, Jane, each raised actions in the Court of Sessions in Edinburgh, against the Will Trustees, to contest both wills on the grounds that William Cunliffe Brooks was a domiciled Scotsman and that his wills should therefore be determined under Scottish law.  The importance of this point lies in a fundamental difference between the two legal systems.  In England a person is free to leave his or her estate to whom ever he or she pleases, but in Scotland that freedom is partly curtailed.  If the Marchioness of Huntly could establish that her father was a domiciled Scot, she would have a right (legitime) to a defined share of 1/3 of WCB’s movable estate.  In the case of Lady Brooks she sought to establish that she had a right to jus relicti, a widow’s right, which had existed since 1881, to a defined share of ½ of her dead husband’s movable estate.  Interestingly, WCB’s other daughter, Edith did not join her sister and step-mother in mounting a challenge to the trustees of her father’s wills.  But then her interests had been well catered for.  She had inherited Fasnadarroch, all her children would share the bulk of WCB’s residual estate and her older son Ean, in addition, would inherit the Aboyne lands.

In his judgement of these actions, Lord Low came to the conclusion that the pursuer must prove not only that WCB had become Scottish by living at Glen Tana as his principal residence for 30 years but that he had sought to acquire his new status and actually abandon his old one.  He concluded that WCB had never relinquished his English domicile.  Residence alone was not sufficient to change domicile.  There must also be evidence of intention to give up the old domicile and acquire the new one.  He kept up his connection with England even though he lived most of the year at Glen Tana. Thus Lady Huntly and Lady Brooks lost their cases against the trustees of Sir William's estate, leaving them free to exercise their judgement in carrying out Sir William’s wishes.

The Glen Tana dream falls apart
William Cunliffe Brooks had wanted his bank, headquartered in Manchester, to continue with the involvement of his nephews.  However, he had invested his trustees with considerable powers to determine how his assets should be beneficially managed after his demise.  Within 2 weeks of the court case being settled, the trustees had sold the bank to Lloyds.  John Brooks was retained by the new owner as the manager of the Manchester branch and later became a main board member at Lloyds.  The second wish of WCB was that Ean Cecil, his senior grandson should continue to occupy and manage the Scottish estates.  The Glen Tana estate was quickly leased to Mr George Coates, the Paisley cotton thread magnate, which meant that Lady Brooks had to find somewhere else to live.  She had a house specially built for her in Aboyne, called “The Neuk”.  Engraved above the door was the motif “JCB” – shades of “WCB”, which was to be found in many places in the glen and in Aboyne!  In 1905, on Ean Cecil reaching the age of 25, Glen Tana was sold at auction in London, the buyer being George Coates.  In 1901 Lady Francis Cecil was living at Craigendinnie House on the south side of the Dee, while Fasnadarroch House was extended for her permanent use.

WCB was aware that future owners of Glen Tana might not share his vision.  When he addressed the workmen present at the inauguration of the “Coo Cathedral” he said “Now one word of caution to you.  You are in the summertime of your enjoyment of labour; but take care, be thrifty.  Take care of the money which is now being spent amongst you.  The fountain cannot always flow, and, unless someone comes after me to take up the running and the plans I have designed, it may be that labour will again be too abundant in these parts, and therefore I advise all of you workmen, much money as you may now be making – I pray you to be thrifty and reserve it for future times.”   Ean Cecil was not interested in continuing as the owner of Glen Tana and George Coates did not share William Brooks’ vision for the future of the glen.  Essentially development stopped with WCB’s death.  However, Coates did fund the building of an Episcopal Church in Aboyne in 1907.  His successor, Lord Glentana built the Recreation Hall on the estate in 1926 and upgraded the bedrooms of Glentana House in 1935 but much of the house was subsequently demolished in 1972, only the ballroom remaining today.  The house was simply no longer fit for purpose, being too big and too costly to maintain.  Thus WCB’s vision for Glen Tana essentially only survived for his period of residence, 1869 to 1900.

WCB's legacy
WCB told his piper, Charles Ewen that he wanted to be buried next to St Lesmo’s Chapel.  There was a large granite boulder in the grounds of the chapel, which had been taken out of the River Tana. Ewen understood that it was arranged between Brooks and Donald McIntosh, the head keeper, that whoever died first would have the boulder placed over his grave.  Donald McIntosh was the first to go and it was placed over his grave.  WCB  also said that he did not want a tombstone, with the words “If anyone wants to know who Sir William Cunliffe Brooks was, let him look around.”  Brooks felt that his legacy would survive in his works and that is true for today’s visitor – if he or she knows something of the glen’s history. Perhaps the final comment on Sir William Cunliffe Brooks should be left to Charles Gordon, 11th Marquis of Huntly and WCB’s son-in-law.  “Whatever the faults of his later years, he deserves to be held in grateful remembrance for his many acts of kindness and generosity, for the improvements he made to the roads, buildings, and cottages of the district, and for the liberal employment he gave to the labourers and tradesmen around him.”

Don Fox

20140421, 20140611, 20150127
donaldpfox@gmail.com