The great-great grandson of Alfred Brooks, the founder of the old Brooks Dye Works factory in St Werburgh's, has died at the age of 91.
Richard Simon Brooks, known as Simon, was born on March 29, 1931, and was the fifth generation to run the historic dye works and laundry business, which closed in 2007 after 145 years. The site has since been redeveloped into homes by property group Acorn and last year Mr Brooks unveiled a plaque in honour of the former textile factory, which he first visited as a child with his father in the 1930s.
Mr Brooks was born in Henleaze to Richard Clement Brooks and Edith Mary Shellard. He lived in Bristol until the Second World War when his parents divorced and he went to live with an aunt in Shropshire. He attended preparatory school in North Wales and was later educated at Radley College after being awarded a scholarship. On leaving school he joined a firm of chartered accountants, qualifying in 1954.
