Born in Montreal, Canada, on 11 October 1897, Brereton Ross (Rick) Hooper was the son of Captain Herbert Ross Hooper and Adele Isabella Hooper (nee Newbury).  He joined the Royal Navy as a Naval Cadet at the Royal Naval College, Osborne on the Isle of Wight in September 1910.  Promoted to Midshipman 1 September 1914, he served in the Light Cruiser HMS DORIS (Captain Frank Larken, Royal Navy). On being promoted to Sub Lieutenant, he was then appointed to HMS DOLPHIN ‘under training’ in July 1917 and, subsequently to the Submarine Depot Ship HMS TITANIA (11th Submarine Flotilla) at Blyth ‘for Submarines’.

Various submarine appointments, both at home and overseas saw Hooper progress his career in submarines, both in rank and in status, to the point where Lieutenant ‘Rick’ Hooper joined the Submarine Depot Ship, HMS BONAVENTURE, at Gibraltar ‘for HMS J1 as First Lieutenant’ on 12 October 1918.  He was later appointed to HMS DOLPHIN for HMS L25 in Command on 1 January 1920.

On 31 March 1921, he married Sylvia Marian Vingoe Buckland in the Parish Church of St John, Notting Hill.

There followed an appointment to HMS CONQUEST at Chatham for HMS M2 as First Lieutenant in February 1922 followed by HMS MAIDSTONE at Devonport for HMS H29 in Command in March 1923.  He then returned to the surface fleet for his ‘Big Ship’ time on 5 November 1924 with an appointment to the Battle Cruiser HMS REPULSE (Captain H W W Hope CB CVO DSO ADC Royal Navy), part of the Battle Cruiser Squadron, Atlantic Fleet.  Brereton Hooper was promoted to Lieutenant Commander on 15 June 1926 and appointed to HMS MAIDSTONE at Devonport ‘for Submarines’ that September. Between 1926 and 1935, he commanded HMS L15, commissioned and commanded HMS OLYMPUS at home and then deployed overseas. However, the January 1935 Navy List shows him as a Lieutenant Commander on the Retired List.

He was recalled for further service during WW2, and Brereton Hooper was appointed to HMS AGGRESSIVE – the Shore Establishment for Coastal Forces at Newhaven in Sussex.  Commander Brereton Hooper died of cardiac failure on 10 January 1943 in the RN Sick Quarters at Newhaven.  There is a memorial to him in the church at St Mary le Haura in New Shoreham and he is also commemorated on a memorial at Brighton Cemetery & Crematorium on Panel No. 2.

Sylvia and Brereton Hooper had become divorced, and he was listed as the husband of Mrs Ida Mabel Hooper of Spreyton, Devon, at the time of his death.