Harold Brooks Baker (later Brooks-Baker; 16 November 1933 – 5 March 2005), was an American-British financier, journalist, and publisher, and self-proclaimed expert on genealogy.
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Early life and education
Born a United States citizen, the son of (Charles) Silas Baker (1888–1943), a Washington, D.C. attorney, and his wife, Elizabeth Lambert, Brooks-Baker contracted polio as a child, and nearly died; he never fully recovered from the physical effects of this illness. He attended Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut and Harvard University, in the same class as Ted Kennedy.
Career
Brooks-Baker became a bond trader and settled in London in the 1960s. In 1974 he and his business partners took over Debrett's, publisher of several titles on British aristocracy including Debrett’s Peerage & Baronetage.
In 1984 he moved to Burke's Peerage Partnership as director of publishing. The partnership had been in poor financial health for years and had already sold its flagship publication, Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage. Brooks-Baker was never associated with Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, but oversaw the publication of books about genealogy and the aristocracy including Burke's Presidential Families of the United States of America. The company's major business was genealogical research.