Education & Career :

Henry J Brougham was born in 1888 at Wellington College and joined the Stanley in 1901, becoming Head of School in 1907. Described as "one of the great sportsmen of the period immediately before the Great War" he excelled on the cricket pitch, the rugby field and on the rackets court.

At Wellington he was in the XI for three seasons, captaining the side in 1907. The same year he won the Public Schools Championship Rackets. The following year he played rackets for England in the 1908 Olympics, winning a bronze. He went up to Oxford, where he won a Blue for cricket in 1911, scoring 84 in a "free and attractive innings" in the Varsity match. At country level he played for Berkshire from 1905 whilst still at Wellington right up to 1914, scoring centuries against Carmarthen, Devon, and Buckinghamshire in the minor counties and represented the Minor Counties against South Africa in 1912.

The same year he was capped four times on the wing for the England XV against Wales, Ireland, Scotland, and France. He also played for Harlequins. Interestingly he never made the Wellington XV, nor did he get a Rugby Blue.

Service Life:

Campaigns:

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

Post War includes all operations in all theatres up to 31st August 1921. This excludes the campaign in Russia against the Bolsheviks. It also includes men who succombed to wounds post war and who died from various causes whilst still in the services but post war.

Detail :

In late 1917 he was badly gassed during an enemy attack and in December he left the front. He was taken ill with tuberculosis the following year while in Ireland and was admitted to the Curragh Military Hospital. A Medical Board which sat there on the 1st of July 1918 found him to be permanently unfit for military service and he resigned his commission on the grounds of ill health on the 26th of July 1918, leaving the army with the rank of Honorary Major.

He went for sanatorium treatment at Pinewood and, in August 1918, he transferred to Tor-ne-Dee at Murtle in Aberdeenshire for further treatment. On the 29th of March 1919 a Medical Board was convened at the 1st Scottish General Hospital which summarised his case: - "Towards the end of 1917 he noticed that he had a good deal of cough and that he was losing weight. In June 1918, he was admitted to Curragh Hospital where he was boarded and recommended for discharge and sanatorium treatment. In July 1918, he went to Pinewood and transferred in Aug. 1918 to Tor-ne-Dee where he has remained ever since. He has made little if any progress. His weight on admission to Tor-ne-Dee was 10st. 1 3/4lbs. He now weighs 10st. 6 1/4lbs. There is extensive active disease of the right lung with extensive pleurisy. There is flattening and dullness over upper part of right chest both anteriorly and posteriorly. Bronchial breathing over upper lobe and crepitation are heard practically all over the lung and signs of pleurisy are heard at the base. T.B. are numerous in the sputum and there is continuous pyrexia."

At a point in time between March 1919 and April 1920 he transferred once more to The Chalet, Marley Heights, Haslemere in Surrey for open air treatment but there was no improvement and he continued losing weight. Sometime between March 1920 and April 1921 he was moved for further open air treatment to the Grand Hotel, La Croix Valmer in the South of France. He died there at 1.30am on the 18th of February 1923.

The school magazine of April 1923 wrote: - “Unutterably sad as is his departure, it was yet a happy release after a long period of suffering heroically born. His malady was lung trouble, caused by as poisoning. Throughout his illness he showed himself extraordinarily brave”

Masonic :

The contribution records at the United Grand Lodge of England for the Lodge show two years war service and then a continuation of his dues for 1921. As we know Henry died in 1923, he is symbolically the last casualty on this roll to have been killed or died as a result of the Great War.

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
• Website : Old Wellingtonian (Heroum Filii) Lodge No. 3404
• Researcher : Tom Hawley