Miss MacGregor
(1831-1883)
6 August 1861

Volume 4 page 317, sitting 5339.

[Identified as 'Miss MacGregor' in the Silvy daybooks,  the sitter is identified on the reverse of the mount as 'Mrs R. Wilmot Brooke.' The portrait came from an album where it appeared opposite one of her husband, who was identified on the album page as 'Major Brooke of the 60th Rifles.' The Army List for 1862-1863 provides his full name, Robert Wilmot Brooke.]

The couple were married on 9 April 1863: 'At St John's Church, Paddington, [...] by the Rev. Scott Moncrieffe, Major Rober Wilmot Brooke, 60th Royal Rifles, son of Wm. Brooke, Esq., Master in Chancery, to Elizabeth Joanna Anne, only daughter of Lieut.-General Sir Duncan MacGregor, KCB' (Caledonian Mercury, 13 April 1863).

They appear on the 1881 census, at 2 Vanburgh Park, Greenwich, the home of Mrs Brooke's father, retired General Duncan MacGregor, KCB. Also present on the night of the census were their sons, Graham and Eardley. Mrs Brooke was born in Scotland.

Her death was announced in The Times on 4 August 1883: 'On 28th July, at Oak Lodge, Blackheath, after a long illness. Elizabeth Joanna Anne, the beloved wife of Lt. Colonel R. Wilmot Brooke, late 60th Rifles.'

Mrs Brooke was 52 at the time of her death, so she was born in or about 1831. Her husband remarried two years later.