As a boy, Brooke-Little's first contact with the College of Arms came when he went to see Sir Algar Howard, then Garter Principal King of Arms. Howard was the head of the corporation of heralds at the College of Arms, and encouraged Brooke-Little's budding interest in the subject of heraldry. While still a student, he founded a heraldry society with his friends. Brooke-Little went to New College, Oxford in 1949 and read history. His college friends included Colin Cole, later Garter King of Arms, with whom he refounded the dormant Oxford University Heraldry Society. The two men refounded it a second time in 1958. The Society was refounded in 1978, and again in 2005 and currently holds one lecture per term.