Dr John Brooke was born in 1942. His father, serving in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War, survived thirty missions over occupied Europe and participated at D-Day, and the liberation of France. His mother was an ardent spiritualist. Educated at an early age by the Catholic order, the De La Salle Brothers, he obtained the prize for catechism with a mark of 100% before being awarded a choral scholarship at Magdalen College School, Oxford, where he was active in music and the theatre; playing the lead role in Shakespeare's King in Henry IV part two and sharing the post of school organist and the prize for the organ. He studied medicine at Edinburgh University also obtaining, an honours degree in Pharmacology. Now retired after nearly half a century of medical practice in the United Kingdom, France and latterly Chad with Medecins Sans Frontieres, he has returned to his studies of the organ, particularly the works of J S Bach and has given recitals in Europe and Australia.