John Brooke-Little
His mother, Constance Egan, was the author of many children's stories including the Epaminondas books and the adventures of Jummy the Baby Elephant.
His paternal ancestors, the Littles, came from Wiltshire and may be traced in the parish registers of Biddestone back to the late seventeenth century.
Howard was the head of the corporation of heralds at the College of Arms, and encouraged Brooke-Little's budding interest in the subject of heraldry.
His college friends included Colin Cole, later Garter King of Arms, with whom he refounded the dormant Oxford University Heraldry Society.
[9] It was a short series of several of these small strokes in quick succession which led to Brooke-Little's death on 13 February 2006 in Banbury, Oxfordshire, at the age of 78.
[12] The rank of pursuivant is the junior of the three levels an officer of arms can attain, and Brooke-Little related the story of his appointment in an editorial.
In 1956, Sir George Bellew, the Garter King of Arms, had recommended Brooke-Little and Colin Cole for the open position of Bluemantle.
The Earl Marshal was not usually faced with two candidates for an opening; he offered the position to Cole, who turned it down as his wife was expecting a child.
Several months later when Sir Gerald Wollaston died, in the ensuing shuffle Cole was finally given his appointment as Portcullis Pursuivant.
While serving in that office, he enjoyed telling people that the commonly held view that the Order of Saint Patrick was extinct was quite false.
Brooke-Little believed that as the Ulster King of Arms – the capacity in which he handled Northern Irish heraldry – he remained ex officio an officer of the order.
[16] When Sir Colin Cole retired from the office of Garter King of Arms in 1992, Brooke-Little was a leading candidate to replace him.
The heralds had traditionally been appointed "for life on good behaviour", but Brooke-Little became Clarenceux shortly after compulsory retirement at age 70 was introduced, and he had to leave after only two years in this post.
In 1952, as John Brooke-Little was entering the world of heraldry as a Gold Staff Officer, he began exploring the origins of his own arms.
The whole shield of arms is blazoned Quarterly: I and IV, argent, goutté de sang three unicorns' heads erased sable armed and crined or langued azure (Brooke-Little); II and III, azure, two dolphins haurient and addorsed or, the eyes gules, between four shamrocks slipped or.
[20] The crest is blazoned a demi-unicorn rampant erased sable, armed, crined and unguled or, langued azure and collared gobony or and gules, with a chain or reflexed over the back and attached with a ring or.
At the same time, the motto of Recte Aut Nil (meaning 'correctly or not at all') was granted, as well as John Brooke-Little's well-used badge, blazoned a triquetra or interlaced by an annulet argent.
Brooke-Little was an Honorary Fellow of the Institute of Heraldic and Genealogical Studies and a Chevalier of the Order of the Fleur de Lys.
He was Master of the Scriveners' Company from 1985 until 1986, Chairman of the Harleian Society,[28] and President of the English Language Literary Trust for eleven years from 1985 until 1996.
In addition to his honours in Britain, Brooke-Little also served as Chancellor of the British Association of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta from 1973 to 1977.
