Ruth Brook-Klauber was born in Frankfurt am Main in 1922, the younger daughter of Benjamin Bendix ('Benno') Bendix, a paint pigments salesman, and Rosa (née Ehrentreu). When Hitler became chancellor in 1933, Benno read the situation clearly enough to move the family to London, settling in Hackney — a decision that saved them. At 16, Ruth left school when her father was interned as an 'enemy alien.' Her sister had married; Ruth stayed with her mother and took a secretarial course, landing a job at Hutchinson's, the publisher. In 1941, aged 17, she joined the Women's Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF), choosing to train as a flight mechanic — repairing bomber planes on aerodromes across the country. She returned to it throughout her life as the period she found most exciting and fulfilling. After the war, she returned to Hutchinson's and rose through the ranks, becoming head of their University Library series in the mid-1950s, commissioning academic books from universities. In 1952 she married John Klauber, a secular Jew of Hungarian parentage training as a doctor and psychoanalyst. As many women of her generation did, she gave up her career when their two children arrived. In the mid-1970s, with her children older, Ruth retrained as a relationship counsellor with the London Marriage Guidance Council, working in GPs' surgeries — a new model for the time. She worked well into her eighties and maintained a private practice. After John's untimely death in 1981, she married the psychiatrist Alexis Brook, whose wife had also died unexpectedly. Their partnership lasted until Alexis's death in 2007. In her later years Ruth joined the University of the Third Age and for a decade led a weekly discussion group called Exploring Experiences of the Third Age. In 2025 she was surprised to receive the Second World War medals she was owed, presented by AJEX, the Jewish Military Association. She was interviewed by Sophie Raworth on the BBC on the anniversary of VE Day, attended a Downing Street party, the memorial service at Westminster Abbey, and a garden party at Buckingham Palace. She remained living independently until her death, and was known for making and sustaining friendships across generations as her contemporaries, one by one, died. Ruth Brook-Klauber died aged 102. She is survived by her children, stepchildren Rebecca and Tim, eight grandchildren — Laura, Daniel, Benjy, Oliver, Clare, Max, Jessie, and Jake — and eight great-grandchildren: Charlie, Sam, Georgia, Emil, Felix, Reuben, Sacha, and Remmy.
