In 1967, Brooke-Little was advanced to the position of Richmond Herald. On 7 July 1980, after almost thirty years of service to the Earl Marshal and the College of Arms, Brooke-Little was appointed to replace Sir Walter Verco as Norroy and Ulster King of Arms, with heraldic authority in the part of England north of the Trent, as well as in Northern Ireland. While serving in that office, he enjoyed telling people that the commonly held view that the Order of Saint Patrick was extinct was quite false. Brooke-Little believed that as the Ulster King of Arms – the capacity in which he handled Northern Irish heraldry – he remained "ex officio" an Officer of the Order. As the holder of that office, he and his successors would remain the Order's King of Arms, Registrar and Knight Attendant, until such time as the Sovereign should choose formally to abolish the office of Ulster King of Arms or to declare that these positions are not vested in the office. The fact that the last knight had died in 1974 was of little consequence to such a staunch traditionalist.