Service Life:

Campaigns:

• The First World War 1914-1918, World-wide.

31 July - 10 November 1917. By the summer of 1917 the British Army was able for the first time to fight on its chosen ground on its terms. Having secured the southern ridges of Ypres at Messines in June, the main attack started on 31st July 1917 accompanied by what seemed like incessant heavy rain, which coupled with the artillery barrages conspired to turn much of the battlefield into a bog. Initial failure prompted changes in the high command and a strategy evolved to take the ring of ridges running across the Ypres salient in a series of 'bite and hold' operations, finally culminating in the capture of the most easterly ridge on which sat the infamous village of Passchendaele. The Official History carries the footnote ?The clerk power to investigate the exact losses was not available? but estimates of British casualties range from the official figure of 244,000 to almost 400,000. Within five months the Germans pushed the British back to the starting line, which was where they had been since May 1915.

Detail :

Private BROOKS, ALBERT EDGAR: Service Number 35283 2nd Bn. Essex Regiment [CWGC].

Middlesex County Times 03 November 1917 "PRIVATE A.E. BROOKS. We regret to report the death of Pte. Albert Edgar ("Bert") Brooks, Essex R., the licensee of the "North Star," Broadway, Ealing. Mrs. Brooks received official notification on Tuesday that her husband had been killed in action in France on Oct. 10. "Bert," who was 29 years of age, was the eldest son of Mrs. S.A. Brooks, and the late Mr. William Brooks of 88, Warwick-road, Ealing. He was educated at Ealing Wesleyan School, and afterwards at the Polytechnic, Regent-street. After his father's death some three years' ago with his brother Frank he took over the "North Star." He joined the forces on June 4 last year, at Hounslow, and left for France on Jan 4. He was a Freemason, and an member of the Ealing Philanthropic Society. Much sympathy is felt for Mrs. Brooks, who is left a widow with a young baby boy, who his father has never seen. His chum in the platoon, writes:- "He died fighting and when found was still holding his gun....I have lost a very good friend." Both his brothers are serving - Pte. Frank Brooks, R.F., (in France) and Pte. Tom Brooks, in a Training Reserve. Mrs. Bert Brooks (widow, Mrs S.A. Brooks (mother), and family, desire to return thank for kind sympathy and letters of condolence in the loss they have attained."

From the 9th October 1917, the 2nd Bn, Essex Regiment were in action at Poelcapple together with the 2nd Battalion Lancashire as part of the 12th Brigade effort at Third Ypres.

Masonic :

Source :

The project globally acknowledges the following as sources of information for research across the whole database:

• The Commonwealth War Graves Commission
• The (UK) National Archives
• Ancestry.co.uk - Genealogy, Family Trees & Family History online
• ugle.org.uk - The records of the United Grand Lodge of England including the Library and Museum of Freemasonry

Additional Source:

• Founder Researchers : Paul Masters & Mike McCarthy
• Researcher : Bruce Littley