He’s as posh as she is!
Charming and handsome he undoubtedly is — but the newest recruit to the royal ranks doesn’t quite fit the new egalitarian ambitions of the house of Windsor.
after incomers Kate middleton (heir to a long line of Durham miners), and meghan markle (descendant of american slaves), Princess Eugenie’s newly announced fiancé Jack Brooksbank turns out, on closer inspection, to be a resolutely establishment figure.
Despite a risqué career of mixing cocktails for a living at the mayfair celebrity hangout mahiki, and being called the decidedly unclassy name of Jack, the Queen’s new grandson-in-law is surprisingly ‘one of us’, as her majesty might say.
For Jack’s people, the Brooksbanks, are one of the nation’s oldest families — rich and well-connected, if not famous (yet).
and though they may make only a small dent in the pages of Debrett’s or Burke’s Peerage, the Brooksbanks take great pride in their impressive royal connections. For example, Jack — an unusual moniker in such exalted circles — is named as a tribute to his great-grandfather, Sir ‘Jack’ Coke.
Sir Jack (full name John Spencer Coke) was a decorated Scots guards officer who, by the beginning of World War ii, was too old to fight but still wanted to serve his country.
Valiant but perhaps just a little too willing, Sir Jack allowed himself to end up with one of the most trying jobs of the war — that of equerry to Queen mary, widow of King george V.
From 1939 and for the next five years, Sir Jack trailed round the west of England as the right-hand man of our present Queen’s grandmother.
notoriously light-fingered, the magpie Queen visited house after neighbouring house, dropping broad hints on how much she adored a chair or picture or piece of silver — this despite the fact the country was enveloped in rationing and privation.
Embarrassed hosts would feel obliged to cave in to her majesty’s shameless kleptomania, and Sir Jack was given the job of arranging transport of the goods purloined back to their wartime retreat at Badminton.
With that kind of pedigree, it’s little wonder Jack Brooksbank has always felt at home with the young Windsors.
indeed, so close are he and his fiancee Eugenie to her cousin harry that the pair of them flew out to Toronto at the end of 2016 to celebrate the Prince’s relationship with meghan markle.
ThEfoursome danced the night away at Soho house, a private members’ club in the Canadian city which Los angeles- born meghan made her home.
not long before, both couples had enjoyed another private rendezvous, this time in London, where they went out on a double dinner date. Since Prince harry lost his big brother William to domestic bliss, Eugenie and Jack have become his go-to playmates.
all of them enjoy the nightlife harry is loath to leave behind as he moves towards his mid-30s and married life. and nobody can show him a fun night out more than young Brooksbank, a former manager of mahiki — and now UK brand ambassador for Casamigos tequila, the brand sold by george Clooney and two pals for a cool $1billion last year.
Smoothly and effortlessly, Jack has become part of the young royal circle. he was introduced to the Queen in September 2016, during a shooting weekend in Scotland to celebrate harry’s 32nd birthday.
and no doubt since she arrived on the scene, he’s been able to give ms markle — as the Palace insists on referring to her — a few pointers as to how to behave in front of her majesty. During his stay at Balmoral, Brooksbank demonstrated reassuringly that he knows how to hold a knife and fork. and unlike the parents of the Duchess of Cambridge, does not have to be taught how to shoot. Or to say napkin rather than serviette.
in fact, the Queen may be delighted to learn that her granddaughter Eugenie and her new fiancé are actually related — in aristocratic circles this is always seen to be a bonus — for Sir Jack’s sister Julia was married to the 7th Viscount Powerscourt, who just happens to be Eugenie’s greatgreat-great grandfather.
adding to this happy connection, the lovers also both descended from the first Earl of harewood (1740-1820).
indeed, with a little more hard work, pedigree-spotters will also discover that Jack is related distantly to the Duchess of Cornwall through Camilla’s ancestor the fourth Earl of albemarle, and to Prince William through the family line of his uncle Earl Spencer.
RaThErmore distantly, Jack descends from Edward iii through his son John of gaunt’s third marriage — and that makes him related to the Duchess of Cambridge. On top of all that, he also descends from James ii of Scotland.
With such a pedigree it’s entirely possible that Jack Brooksbank could be offered — but would be wiser to refuse, given the inevitable public outcry — a peerage when he marries. Certainly the Duke of York, a man very touchy about his rank, would not like his daughter to become plain mrs Brooksbank, and would undoubtedly like his grandchildren to have a title (his own title cannot pass through the female line).
While andrew’s brothers Charles and Edward can have titled grandchildren, he would not.
now that the engagement has been announced, will andrew be demanding the social elevation of his son-in-law to Lord This or That? Why not, some will say — the Brooksbank lineage can be traced back almost 750 years.
The first of the line was Thomas Brokesbank in 1273, who may have been only a lowly farm worker, but, it has to be said, the family lineage he created is significantly older than the house of Windsor’s.
and if the family started humbly as farmers in the dales of Yorkshire, they grew rich over the centuries and married well.
For generations the family seat was healaugh manor, a moated augustinian priory dating from 1218 and situated near Tadcaster in Yorkshire.
healaugh was inherited by the most famous member of the family, Stamp Brooksbank, who became an mP and, at the age of 36, governor of the Bank of England in the 18th century.
But it was Stamp Brooksbank’s father who created the family fortune, breaking away from generations of farming and landowning in north Yorkshire and heading south to London to become a haberdasher’s apprentice.
he ended up as a multinational trading merchant and died a very rich man, but not before generously founding The Brooksbank School in his home town of Elland (which gives the famous Leeds United football stadium its name of Elland road).
By comparison, the people on Jack’s mother’s side are a tad less gold-plated, but still respectable enough. nicola Brooksbank can count a baronet and a knight among the finer-plumaged birds in her family tree.
and there are some interesting foreign names there, too — way back, her forebear Frederic Schwann from Frankfurt brought his wool and cloth merchant
business to Britain and prospered so well he became the founder and benefactor of what is now Huddersfield University. All of which is quite a lot to live up to for young Jack.
While he’s moved in a glamorous world up until now, he’s not exactly scorching a career- path which will ultimately match those of his illustrious ancestors.
He comes from a long male line which went to Eton and Cambridge. His father, Old Etonian company director George Brooksbank, is boss of London’s smartest florist, Pulbrook & Gould.
Based in Mayfair, they have provided the wedding flowers for at least two royal weddings — the Duke of Kent’s and his sister Princess Alexandra’s in the Sixties — so presumably will get the job in Windsor in the autumn.
Pulbrook & Gould was created by Lady Pulbrook, wife of a chairman of Lloyd’s in the Sixties, and maybe Jack’s cocktail-jiggling skills come from her — Lady Pulbrook was renowned for mixing a mean snifter, and was remembered for her speciality, the Boston (gin and apricot brandy, with grenadine syrup and lemon juice).
Jack grew up in the family home in Pimlico, the slightly less posh end of Belgravia, as well as in the country, though the family’s main residence now is a converted school building in Battersea, overlooking the Thames.
Jack himself is not an Etonian, but went to Stowe in Buckinghamshire, which trails in the academic league tables — and after Bristol University opted to don a waiter’s apron, starting at the fashionable Admiral Codrington pub in Chelsea and The Devonshire Terrace in the City of London before moving on to Mahiki, owned by young royal favourites Guy Pelly, Nick House and Piers Adam.
What is certain is that in him, Princess Eugenie — who may be eighth in line to the throne but who has led a life overshadowed by the eccentric, not to say wayward, antics of both her parents — has found some solace and contentment in his arms over the past eight years.
And for that alone Her Majesty the Queen, so deeply fond of her grand-daughter, will be forever grateful.
If nothing else, cocktailhour at Buckingham Palace is likely to be a lot livelier with Jack’s arrival.