 In May 1943, Sir Basil Brooke succeeded John Miller Andrews as Prime Minister of Northern Ireland; Maynard Sinclair was appointed Minister of Finance ("de facto" Deputy Prime Minister) in the Government of Northern Ireland on 6 May 1943 and was made a Privy Councillor (Northern Ireland).He was regarded by the officers of his TA unit as a much more liberal individual than his Prime Minister, Sir Basil Brooke.The opinion of those former officers who knew him was that his politics were not unlike those of Captain Terence O'Neill and that, had he lived to become Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, the complete history of the province would have been different.