Charles Brook had purchased Enderby Hall in Leicestershire in 1865 and died there on 10 July 1872.
DEATH OF CHARLES BROOK, ESQ., ENDERBY HALL, LEICESTERSHIRE
We record with more than ordinary feelings of regret the death of Charles Brook, Esq., of Enderby Hail, Leicester, and Meltham Mills, Huddersfield For some time past Mr Brook has been suffering from a serious illness, which ever and anon placed his life in jeopardy ; but the favourable telegraphic despatches which have lately been published led to the belief that, for at least some time to come, his life might be spared to his relatives and friends. The highest medical skill in the country, including Dr. Gull, physician to the Prince of Wales, and Dr. C. Marriott, of Leicester, attended the deceased up to the time of his death, which took place about three o’clock on Wednesday morning.
During Mr Brook’s long and painful illness the prayers (public and private) of thousands in this neighbourhood were offered up for his recovery. Every household in Huddersfield felt that the life of the noblest example of public philanthropy the neighbourhood ever produced was hanging in the balance. His illness was taken home to every heart, and felt with all the acuteness incidental to a near and dear relative. This feeling, too, was not confined to one class in the social scale, or the members of the Church of England of which he was a most devout and attached member, but it was shared in by men of every political casts and religious creed.
In all that concerned the religious, moral, and educational welfare of this district he invariably occupied the front rank. Others have done nobly, but he excelled them all. His was a princely generosity, not only in the amount of his gifts, but in the manner of giving them. No sooner was his bead and his heart convinced than his hand bestowed, some of his largest public contributions being accompanied by a total absence of ostentation. In every relation of life he was a model man. Many years of prosperity in business placed great wealth at his command and thus he largely used for the glory of God and the welfare of mankind. The churches and schools at Meltham Mills and Enderby prove his “zeal for the Lord,” and the noble Convalescent Home which he publicly handed over to the town of Huddersfield in August last will be for all time a monument of his tender sympathy for the poor. It was one of the noblest traits in his noble nature that he “never forgot the quarry from whence he was dug.” Meltham Mills and its poor was a sweet green spot in his fondest recollections, and when he paid periodicol visits to the district the workpeople in the firm of Jonas Brook and Brothers, who had been known to him throughout life, were objects of his tenderest solicitude. By his death the Church of England has lost one of its most consistent and liberal supporters. When in health he loved to enter the public sanctuary and offer up common prayer and praise to the common Father of all, and no legitimate application for assistance in promoting Church building, or the extension of Church principles, ever appealed for bis aid in vain. He was a contributor of £5,000 to the Huddersfield Church Extension Fund; £3,000 for providing additional school accommodation for the Established Church in the neighbourhood (in addition to the same amount for the town of Leicester), besides innumerable gifts to other churches including St. Stephen’s, Rashcliffe, and the one now in course of erection at Newsome.
But we refrain from making the present melancholy occasion a medium for parading Mr Brook’s liberality. He has lived a tolerably long, and in every respect a consistent life. By precept and example he has well discharged his duty in his day and generation, and
The sweet remembrance of the just,
Will flourish whlen be sleeps in dust.
In the long roll of Huddersfield worthies who have gone down to the grave, scarcely one has left a nobler, and none a more stainless name.
On the Parish Church and other places in the town, flags were hoisted half-mast high when the melancholy news reached Huddersfield, and the bells of the Parish Church rang a muffled peal. We have been unable to ascertain where Mr Brook will be interred, but whether it be at Meltham Mills or Enderby multitudes of sorrowing friends will be present to mingle their tears with those who in life were specially near and dear to him. Mr Brook was in the 58th year of his age.
— Huddersfidd Daily Chronicle.
