Geoffrey Bernard Braybrooke (4 April 1935 – 9 March 2013) was a New Zealand politician. He was an MP from 1981 to 2002, representing the Labour Party. He was one of the party's more socially conservative MPs. Biography Early life and career Braybrooke was born in Gillingham, Kent, England, on 4 April 1935, the son of Geoff and Edith Braybrooke, and was educated at Chatham House Grammar School in Ramsgate. It was the same school that future Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Edward Heath had attended. He attended Chatham House after he won a state scholarship and there was exposed to snobbery and exclusion by fellow students as he came from a working class family. He joined the Royal Army Medical Corps in 1952 and served in the Korean War. In 1955, he became a police officer in London, but in 1957, he chose to move to New Zealand and re-enter the army. Braybrooke reminisced about emigrating: "I became a New Zealand citizen in 1958 and I never regretted it. I am a Kiwi by choice, not by an accident of birth. It started when I was in the Metropolitan Police and I was standing at Charing Cross in the pouring rain directing traffic. I was nearly run over a bus and later I had three pub fights to sort out. I walked past New Zealand House, which was in the Strand then, and it looked so good that I went in and made enquiries. I had to join the Army again to be accepted." He served in the Royal New Zealand Army Medical Corps from 1957 until 1970. During his military career, he served in the Malayan Emergency and Vietnam War as a Warrant Officer. Despite serving there, he was firmly of the opinion that New Zealand should never have gotten itself involved in the Vietnam War stating "I saw all the horror and filth of war and read all the rubbish that was written about it back here and it was all to support corrupt officials. We weren't supporting democracy, we were protecting people who flew out of Vietnam with bags of gold. It was a fascist regime and a communist regime having a go at each other. But, for all that, I am not a pacifist. I believe in a strong, well-trained and well-equipped army for New Zealand's defence. But it should be for self-defence only.