Denis Eric Rooke was born in New Cross, London, the younger son of Frederick George Rooke, a printer and travelling salesman, and his wife Ada Emily nee Brown.
13 Facts About Denis Rooke
1.
2.
Denis Rooke attended Westminster City School and Addey and Stanhope School before studying mechanical engineering at University College London, taking a first-class degree in 1944.
3.
Denis Rooke then served in REME in Britain and India until 1949, attaining the rank of major.
4.
Denis Rooke studied for a postgraduate diploma in chemical engineering at University College which he was awarded in 1949.
5.
Denis Rooke married Elizabeth Brenda Evans on 22 January 1949 in Deptford, London.
6.
Denis Rooke was an investigator providing research services, and they had a daughter, Diana.
7.
Denis Rooke was seconded to North Thames Gas in 1957 to work on reforming processes for producing town gas from natural gas and oil.
8.
Denis Rooke worked on liquefied natural gas, pioneering the sea transport of LNG.
9.
Denis Rooke was aboard the ship, the Methane Pioneer, making the first delivery to Canvey Island of LNG to the UK in 1959.
10.
Denis Rooke claimed this was "perhaps the biggest peacetime operation in the nation's history".
11.
Denis Rooke became deputy chairman of the Gas Council in 1972 and, along with the chairman, Sir Henry Jones, and Sir Arthur Hetherington, he was responsible for combining the Gas Council and 12 separate gas boards into the British Gas Corporation in 1973.
12.
Denis Rooke was appointed chairman of the British Gas Corporation in 1976.
13.
In 1986, British Gas was floated on the stock market; Denis Rooke had insisted that British Gas should be privatised as an integrated entity.