Brooks, Reginald Thomas (‘Peter’)

Author

b Wandsworth, S London, 1918, d Harrow, Middx 1985. Clapham Central Sch, the London Sch of Economics, and Mansfield Coll and St Catherine’s Soc (now College), Oxford; BA, MA. Ordained to the Congregational ministry, he served Yorks churches in Skipton and Bradford before joining the BBC in 1950. He then worked in the Religious Dept for many years, moving later from radio to TV; his home was at Harrow Weald, Middx. Among his books were The Economic Consequences of the Church (1944) and Person to Person (1964). As a hymnwriter ‘his output was slender but of high quality’—Alan Luff. He wrote his first hymn while still a student, and although it was not published for over 35 years, the ‘Bible hymn’ he wrote in 1954 (and published in 1962, as included here) gained widespread acceptance in many church traditions in the UK and beyond. His last hymn, Spirit of God, in all that’s true I know you, was written in the final year of his life and was a prizewinner in a BBC ‘Songs of Praise’ competition. No.552.