Roma Brookes was born in Corby, Northamptonshire, on 11 September 1916, the daughter of Albert Brookes, schoolmaster, and Lois Edith Round. She attended Kettering High School before coming to Girton College, where she studied Modern and Medieval Languages (French and Italian) from 1935-1938. She gained the Cambridge Teachers’ Certificate at the Cambridge Training College in 1939. Roma Brookes taught French and Italian at Wycombe Abbey School (1939-42) and Talbot Heath School, Bournemouth (1942-46). She then became Head of the Modern Languages Department at Brighton and Hove High School in 1946, remaining there until she took up the post of Headmistress at Great Yarmouth High School in 1955. In 1961 she returned to Cambridge as Headmistress of Cambridgeshire High School for Girls, overseeing its transition towards becoming Long Road Sixth Form College in 1974. She was the first Principal of the College from 1974 until her retirement in 1976. She appears to have remained in close contact with Girton College, persuading a number of her contemporaries to take part in events such as prizegiving at some of the schools where she taught. In later years she gave much of her spare time to Girton College: she helped at Roll events; she assisted with the compiling of the Girton College Register; and she was co-Registrar of the Roll from 1984-85 and sole Registrar from 1985-86. She had a lifelong love of Italy and travelled there regularly. Roma Brookes died in Cambridge on 20 November 1990.