Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Charles BROOKS was born on 8 January 1883 at Liverpool England. His first recorded work for the NSWGR Permanent Way Branch is as a lifter in the Northern Division from 26 March 1912, but there is an indication of earlier service on his card in the form of a diagonal line holding several lines blank for later insertion of details. In 1913 he was a fettler between Bellata and Moree and in 1915 between Gosford and Broadmeadow. The staff clerks seem to have not realised that Brooks had enlisted for appointments to the Northern Division are listed until a resignation in 1920, though these are all later ruled through. There is no record of a release to join the Expeditionary Forces, but merely a note of his death on 7 February 1917. This is the correct date for Charles Brooks, (Service Number 2279) who described his ‘trade or calling’ on his Attestation Papers, signed at Newcastle on 19 July 1916, as a ‘Railway Fettler’. Brooks lived at Wyee.
At the time of his enlistment Brooks was not married and gave his father, Edward, still living in Liverpool, England, as his next of kin. Allotted to the 4th Reinforcements to the 34th Battalion he embarked HMAT ‘Borda’ at Sydney on 17 October 1916 and reached Plymouth 9 January 1917.
At first, he was assigned to the 9th Training Battalion at Durrington Camp but was admitted to Fargo Hospital less than three weeks after his arrival in England with Bronchitis. He died of that disease on 7 February and was buried at Allerton Cemetery, Garston, Liverpool.
(NAA B2455-3130016)