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Name: ROOKE, Charles Eustace
Birth Date: 22 May 1892 Callao, Peru
Death Date: 21 July 1947 Canterbury
First Date: 1918
Last Date: 1918
Profession: Traffic manager, railway
Married: In Singapore 16 Sep 1920 Irene Phyllis Patterson b. 21 Aug 1890 Grassendale, St Mary, Lancs., d. 1969 Bridge, Kent
Children: Giles Hugh; Ann Jennifer
Book Reference: Gazette
War Service: Indian Army
General Information:
Gazette - 30/1/1918 - C.E. Rooke, arrived from Leave - Assistant Traffic Manager, Uganda Railway - 21/1/1918
Gazette 28/8/1918 - Departed on termination of Appointment - 14/8/1918
http://powys.org/pl_tree/ps62/ps62_144.html Charles Eustace Rooke, born at Callao, South America, 22 May 1892. Holds a railway appointment under Government in the Malay State. Served as Lieutenant in the Indian Army in German East Africa during the Great War. Awarded war medals with clasps. Married at Singapore, 16 Sept. 1920, Phyllis Irene, second dau. of the late Thomas Patterson, of Liverpool and Littlebourne House, Kent.”
From “The Cyprus Government Railway” by Alexander-Michael Hadjilyra, pub. Nicosia in 2006, p. 10:
“The financial adversities the CGR went through to survive made it necessary to conduct improvement studies for its future: with a 3-year window, Charles Eustace Rooke was appointed to conduct a detailed study. In March 1932, he proposed that Sections 2 and 3 - apart from the six miles to the west of Nicosia - should be closed down for regular operation and be replaced by road services, while the last five miles of Section 3 should be dimantled. When Section 2 (since Section 3, as a separate line, had ceased to exist) re-opened wntil Kalokhorio Station, it was used mainly for freight and mineral traffic. His proposal to re-nationalise Famagusta harbour, as to promote export trade, did not get across. C. E. Rooke soon became the General Manager of the Railway, succeeding W. M. Smithers.”
“The financial adversities the CGR went through to survive made it necessary to conduct improvement studies for its future: with a 3-year window, Charles Eustace Rooke was appointed to conduct a detailed study. In March 1932, he proposed that Sections 2 and 3 - apart from the six miles to the west of Nicosia - should be closed down for regular operation and be replaced by road services, while the last five miles of Section 3 should be dimantled. When Section 2 (since Section 3, as a separate line, had ceased to exist) re-opened wntil Kalokhorio Station, it was used mainly for freight and mineral traffic. His proposal to re-nationalise Famagusta harbour, as to promote export trade, did not get across. C. E. Rooke soon became the General Manager of the Railway, succeeding W. M. Smithers.”
From The Times:
20 June 1944: C.E. Rooke, recently General Manager Nigerian Railway, wrote to the Times from the RAC., Pall Mall on “A West African Survey”.
1 Jan 1945 Mr C.E.Rooke, C.M.G., was re-elected a Director of the Trans-Zambesia Railway Company.
10 Nov 1945 at the AGM of Nyasaland Railways Limited held in London: “The term of appointment of Sir Frank Buddeley, K.B.E., C.M.G. as one of the representative of the the Nyasaland Government on the board ended on the 3rd of this month, and in his place the Nyasaland Government have appointed Mr C.E. Rooke, C.M.G.”
1 May 1947 Mr C.E. Rooke was a member was a member of the mission reporting on the [notorious] Gambia Ground Nut scheme.
3 Feb 1948 The Chairman of the Trans-Zambesia Railway, Vivian L Oury, provided this statement to the AGM:
“I regret to have to report the death … and on July 21 last of Mr C. E. Rooke, C.M.G., one of the representatives of the Nyasaland Government on the board. They both rendered services of the greatest value to the company and their wide knowledge of affairs in general, and of railways in particular, was always, and generously, made available to their colleagues on the board.”
4 July 1963: Ann Jennifer, only daughter of Mr and Mrs C E Rooke of Shorne Kent was to marry a Johnson Woodhouse.
20 June 1944: C.E. Rooke, recently General Manager Nigerian Railway, wrote to the Times from the RAC., Pall Mall on “A West African Survey”.
1 Jan 1945 Mr C.E.Rooke, C.M.G., was re-elected a Director of the Trans-Zambesia Railway Company.
10 Nov 1945 at the AGM of Nyasaland Railways Limited held in London: “The term of appointment of Sir Frank Buddeley, K.B.E., C.M.G. as one of the representative of the the Nyasaland Government on the board ended on the 3rd of this month, and in his place the Nyasaland Government have appointed Mr C.E. Rooke, C.M.G.”
1 May 1947 Mr C.E. Rooke was a member was a member of the mission reporting on the [notorious] Gambia Ground Nut scheme.
3 Feb 1948 The Chairman of the Trans-Zambesia Railway, Vivian L Oury, provided this statement to the AGM:
“I regret to have to report the death … and on July 21 last of Mr C. E. Rooke, C.M.G., one of the representatives of the Nyasaland Government on the board. They both rendered services of the greatest value to the company and their wide knowledge of affairs in general, and of railways in particular, was always, and generously, made available to their colleagues on the board.”
4 July 1963: Ann Jennifer, only daughter of Mr and Mrs C E Rooke of Shorne Kent was to marry a Johnson Woodhouse.
Comments: That he was then living in Cyprus in 1934 confirms the snippet in the history of the Cyprus Government Railway that he had a project on that railway and eventually became its General Manager. Further it makes the reported birth of his and Irene’s son in Cyprus a little more likely, and which he gave a hint that that was all he had in 1934.