Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Walter BROOKES, (Service Number 395) was born on 27 May 1890 at Romiley, Cheshire, England. His only work for the NSWGR was as a cleaner (the first rung in the career path to locomotive driver) at Eveleigh Locomotive Depot) where he was casual from 30 January 1914 and permanent a year later. According to his railway record he ‘joined Expeditionary Forces on 9 March 1915’. Somehow, he was progressed to fireman at Harden in May 1917, though he was then fighting in France. The entry is ruled through and it is noted in red that ‘Did not resume duty’.
Brookes enlisted at Liverpool on the same day that his railway card records. He declared that he had served a five-year apprenticeship in Cheshire, though in which trade is not stated. At the time of his enlistment he was unmarried, and he gave his mother Betsy Brookes living in Penshurst as his next of kin. His Attestation Papers are later amended to nominate a wife, Alice Brookes, living in Cheshire as the next of kin.
Allotted to the 17th Australian Infantry Battalion Brookes embarked HMAT ‘Themistocles’ at Sydney on 12 May 1915 and was in Egypt probably well before 16 August 1915 when he proceeded to join the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force on Gallipoli. He served there for the rest of the campaign without incident and returned to Alexandria, via Mudros, on 9 January 1916. In March he embarked at Alexandria to join the British Expeditionary Force in France, passing through Marseilles on 23 March.
After several months serving with the 17th Battalion he transferred to the 2nd Australian Division Signal Company Army Engineers on 15 October 1916. There is no record of leave in England, but Brookes evidently had some time away from the front, for he married Alice Louisa Slater at Heatherstone Rimily (sic), Cheshire on 26 October 1916.
He was killed in action on Belgium on 8 October 1917 and buried at Poperinghe New Military Cemetery. All reports agree that Brookes was killed by an artillery shell well behind the lines. Spr J. Lambert (2387) reported:
‘In general conversation among the boys I learnt Brookes was killed at Popperinghe by a shell. He was killed many miles, about 20., behind the lines in a rest camp and must have been buried.’
Sgt. Don (6) suggested a bomb from an aeroplane rather than an artillery shell and that the location was a Casualty Clearing Station rather than a rest camp.
Later, as cemeteries were formalised, and headstones erected both mother and widow offered inscriptions. The widow’s choice of words was inscribed:
‘Until the day dawns and the shadows flee away – Mizpah’
Rather than the mother’s:
‘May his reward be as great as his Sacrifice’
The inscription was limited to 66 characters but had the two inscriptions together been less than this limit the War Graves Commission would have used both.
Note: The AWM and the NAA use the spelling ‘BROOKES’.
(NAA B2455-3129881)