BROOKE, Dulcibella Mary
Dulcibella Mary Brooke was born at Wetheringsett, Suffolk on 8 December 1873 and baptised on 4 January 1874, only daughter of Henry Brooke (1839-11 November 1892), a farmer and J.P., and his wife Dulcibella Laetitia Moore (1840-17 September 1915), only child of the late Revd Robert Moore, who married at Wetheringsett Church on 11 February 1863. In 1891, Dulcibella was a 17-year-old, living at Wetheringsett Manor with her parents, 51-year-old Henry and 51-year-old Dulcibella, and a sibling brother, 12-year-old Henry, later Sir Henry Robert Moore Brooke-Popham (1878-1953), an air force officer, and they kept seven indoor servants. A member of the Ipswich Art Club 1890-1891 and exhibited from Wetheringsett in 1890, 'Cottage' and 'Wetheringsett'. Her father died in 1892 and in 1901 her mother was 'insane' under the care of Dr Herbert Phillpotts at East Cliffe, Torquay, Devon. Dulcibella married at St Augustine's Church, Queen's Gate, Kensington, London on 26 November 1903, George Henry Pooley (1868-1937), of the Uganda Medical Service and of Stonham Aspal, Suffolk, who was a brother to Annie Violet Pooley. In 1911, Dulcibella was a 37 year old, living at 15 Gladstone Road, Sheffield with her 42-year-old husband George, an ophthalmic surgeon, and their three children, Henry Popham 6, born Uganda, Frederick George 5, born Grove Park, Kent and 6 month old Dulcibella Vera, who was born at Sheffield, they also had living with them, Dulcibella's 71 year old mother, who had two attendance nurses on the insane, also retaining five indoor servants. Her mother died in 1915 and despite having inherited some £20,000 Dulcibella's husband was declared insolvent in 1927, and together with his secretary with whom he became infatuated, was charged with fraud but entered a mental home and in 1935 paying 18p in the £1 dividend and died in 1937. In 1939, Dulcibella Pooley was a widow living at Shotover, Uckfield, Sussex. Dulcibella Mary Pooley was living at 62 Fitzjohns Avenue Hampstead when she died at the home of her daughter at 12 Lancaster Drive, Hampstead, London on 23 June 1942.