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ON COLONEL ROOKE

by James Fenton

(page 91, BUSHLIFE IN TASMANIA, 1891)

In looking over the map of Formby (now called West Devonport), I am grieved to be reminded of the fact that all the pioneers by whose names the first streets were called have passed away, with the exception of myself. I grieve to think that the old familiar faces will never more be seen. Rooke Street was named after Colonel Rooke. He came to Tasmania with his wife (a Spanish lady), after he had served an active and not inglorious military career in Spain. He remained some time with his brother, A. E. Rooke, Esq., at "The Retreat", near Deloraine, and then came to Torquay, where he lived many years, all of us remembered the gallant high-spirited colonel, with his fund of amusing tales of military life, and his brilliant humour. I can say in the words of Hamlet – "I knew him, Horatio; a man of infinite just and most excellent fancy." It was no small treat to wend one's way up to the Police Office, heavy though the sandy road was, to hear Rooke and Rivington hurling witty, good-natured jokes at each other. Rivington was the first lawyer who came to Torquay to disturb the placid calm of that Arcadian paradise, but he did not succeed well in his vocation until another* of the same fraternity followed, for it takes two of them to get up a good quarrel. The colonel, on the other hand, was clerk of the peace, and, although he had been a man of war, he loved peace, as a good civilian ought to do. If ever his temper got ruffled it was at the unreasonable importunities of some stupid litigant demanding a summons when it would have been more sensible for him, instead of taking Rivington's advice, to seek counsel from the town clerk of Ephesus, and keep quiet. If, on such occasions, the colonel's anathemas accidentally exploded, it was not at all to be wondered at, for in those middle days there were many "cockatooers", with more money than prudence, whose chief delight was to settle their differences before a magistrate in a police court. This brought grist to Rivington's mill, but only additional work to the other. Colonel Rooke was a gentleman by birth and education, nor was anything detracted therefrom by his kindliness of disposition and affability of manner.

*Mr John Steer