| Regimental number | 3462 |
| Place of birth | Richmond, New South Wales |
| School | Dulwich Hill Superior Public School, New South Wales |
| Other training | Hurlestone Agricultural College, New South Wales |
| Religion | Presbyterian |
| Occupation | Orchardist |
| Address | 626 New Canterbury Road, Dulwich Hill, New South Wales |
| Marital status | Single |
| Age at embarkation | 18 |
| Next of kin | Father, A Brooks, 626 New Canterbury Road, Dulwich Hill, New South Wales |
| Previous military service | Served for 4 years in the Junior Cadets (from age 9.6); 3 years in the Senior Cadets (Compulsory Military Training scheme). |
| Enlistment date | |
| Rank on enlistment | Private |
| Unit name | 18th Battalion, 8th Reinforcement |
| AWM Embarkation Roll number | 23/35/2 |
| Embarkation details | Unit embarked from Sydney, New South Wales, on board HMAT A60 Aeneas on |
| Rank from Nominal Roll | Private |
| Unit from Nominal Roll | 18th Battalion |
| Fate | Killed in Action |
| Place of death or wounding | Zonnebeke, Belgium |
| Age at death | 20 |
| Age at death from cemetery records | 20 |
| Place of burial | No known grave |
| Commemoration details | The Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial (Panel 23), Belgium The Menin Gate Memorial (so named because the road led to the town of Menin) was constructed on the site of a gateway in the eastern walls of the old Flemish town of Ypres, Belgium, where hundreds of thousands of allied troops passed on their way to the front, the Ypres salient, the site from April 1915 to the end of the war of some of the fiercest fighting of the war. The Memorial was conceived as a monument to the 350,000 men of the British Empire who fought in the campaign. Inside the arch, on tablets of Portland stone, are inscribed the names of 56,000 men, including 6,178 Australians, who served in the Ypres campaign and who have no known grave. The opening of the Menin Gate Memorial on 24 July 1927 so moved the Australian artist Will Longstaff that he painted 'The Menin Gate at Midnight', which portrays a ghostly army of the dead marching past the Menin Gate. The painting now hangs in the Australian War Memorial, Canberra, at the entrance of which are two medieval stone lions presented to the Memorial by the City of Ypres in 1936. Since the 1930s, with the brief interval of the German occupation in the Second World War, the City of Ypres has conducted a ceremony at the Memorial at dusk each evening to commemorate those who died in the Ypres campaign. |
| Panel number, Roll of Honour, Australian War Memorial | 84 |
| Miscellaneous information from cemetery records | Parents: Adam and Mary BROOKS, 626 New Canterbury Road, Dulwich Hill, New South Wales |
| Other details |
War service: Egypt, Western Front Admitted to No. 4 Auxiliary Hospital, Heliopolis, 5 March 1916 (mumps); discharged, 15 March 1916. Proceeded from Alexandria to join the British Expeditionary Force, 18 March 1916; disembarked Marseilles, 25 March 1916. Admitted to 7th Australian Field Ambulance, 28 April 1916 (gun shot wound, left arm); to 13th General Hospital, 10 May 1916 (trachoma); to England, 15 May 1916; to 1st Auxiliary Hospital, 31 May 1916; discharged to Training Depot, 21 June 1916. Found guilty, Bhurtpore Barracks, of conduct to the prejudice of good order and Military discipline in that he omitted to put out a fire when ordered: awarded 7 days' confined to barracks. Proceeded overseas to France, 22 May 1917; rejoined Bn, France, 10 June 1917. Killed in action, 4 October 1917. Medals: British War Medal, Victory Medal |
Postal Address:
Po Box 7916
Canberra BC 2610, Australia
Street Address:
Northcott Drive,
Campbell, ACT 2600
