BROOKS, Percival Henry
| Service Number: | 1725 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | Not yet discovered |
| Last Rank: | Private |
| Last Unit: | 4th Infantry Battalion |
| Born: | Dorset, England., 1890 |
| Home Town: | Not yet discovered |
| Schooling: | Not yet discovered |
| Occupation: | Station Hand. |
| Memorials: |
World War 1 Service
| 17 Mar 1915: | Involvement Private, 1725, 4th Infantry Battalion, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '8' embarkation_place: Sydney embarkation_ship: HMAT Shropshire embarkation_ship_number: A9 public_note: '' | |
|---|---|---|
| 17 Mar 1915: | Embarked Private, 1725, 4th Infantry Battalion, HMAT Shropshire, Sydney |
Help us honour Percival Henry Brooks's service by contributing information, stories, and images so that they can be preserved for future generations.
Add my storyBiography
Brooks was born in 1890 in Dorset, England. His family made the move to Sydney, Australia when he was a small boy. When the war began Brooks was 23 and worked as a station hand. His life was simple and quite average until his spur of the moment choice to enlist in the armed forces.
At the time he enlisted he was 24. This was fairly early on in the war and he was placed in the 4th battalion with the service number of 1725 He Embarked to Egypt on the 17th of March 1915 on the HMAT A9 Shropshire.
After his training in Egypt had concluded, he fought in numerous battles. The first one was the battle of Gallipoli. His time at Gallipoli was not recorded and his exact role in the battle was unknown but it is said that his battalion (4th) was a set of reinforcements for the first, second and third battalions. After Gallipoli he was awarded 21 days of He was admitted to hospital on the 18th of September 1915 for unknown reasons. He then proceeded to fight in the battle of Somme’s in France. He was then wounded on the 16th of the 8th 1916 almost a year after his venture and injury in Gallipoli. Again his exact role in the battle of the Somme is not recorded but his battalion is told to have served a defensive role fending off the Germans using weapons such as the Arisaka types 30 and 38 rifles, British Bulldog handguns and Elephant guns. After his injury he was awarded the rank of Lance corporal. The hospital records state that he suffered from physical and mental trauma (shellshock/PTSD.) after his time a multiple hospitals he was awarded the rank of Corporal.
A total of 3 websites state that Brook’s fate was that he returned home after his time at hospital. This makes a solid conclusion and no more documents were recorded after this.
Being at Gallipoli I would not doubt the fact that he suffered from shellshock, as the events that happened were horrid. The allies were impacted with 141 000 casualties with more than 44000 of those resulting in death. Of the dead, 8709 were Australians and 2701 were from New Zealand.
Bibliography.
4th Australian Infantry Battalion 2015, Australian War Memorial, accessed 29 March 2016, <https://www.awm.gov.au/unit/U51444/>
AIF Person Overview. 2015, AIF & UNSW, accessed 29 March 2016,
Battle of the Somme 2015, HISTORY.com, accessed 29 March 2016, <http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-i/battle-of-the-somme>.
https://www.aif.adfa.edu.au/showPerson?pid=33804>.
Click images to start slideshow.