Selected Biographies

Brooks, Frederick Herbert – Born: Raydon, Suffolk in 1889. Parents: Frederick Brooks (Farm Bailiff) and Ellen [née Wilding].  Family Connections: Brother to Cecil George Brooks [b1891].  Home: Woodland Road, Raydon, Suffolk (1891), Dunton’s Farm, Bridge Street, Long Melford, (1901), Smeatham Hall Lodge, Bulmer, Essex (1911), Kitchen Hill, Bulmer (1921).  Occupation: Agricultural Labourer (1911), Bricklayer’s Labourer for Farm and Home Concrete Company of Sudbury (1921).  Married: Emily Weavers in 1910.  Service Record: No military record has been found.  Died: Sudbury, Suffolk in 1952.

Brooks, Cecil George – Born: Raydon, Suffolk in 1890.  Parents: Frederick Brooks (Farm Bailiff) and Ellen [née Wilding].  Family Connections: Brother to Frederick Herbert Brooks [b1891]; also, brother-in-law of Arthur John Stanhope [b1875], John Stanhope [b1877], Sidney Robert Stanhope [b1879] and James Stanhope [b1885].  Home: Woodland Road, Raydon, Suffolk (1891), Dunton’s Farm, Bridge Street, Long Melford, (1901), The Rothy, Ickworth Gardens, Ickworth, Suffolk (1911).  Occupation: Gardener (1911).  Married: Mary Ann Stanhope of Long Melford in 1915.  Service Record: Cecil enlisted as Pte.4962 with 4^th Battalion, Suffolk Regiment, being posted to France and transferred as Pte.201687 to 2^nd Battalion, Suffolks as part of 76^th Brigade, 3^rd Division.  Between 26.9.1917 and 28.9.1917 the Battalion took part in the Battle of Polygon Wood, one of the Third Battles of Ypres.  By this stage of the War the German front-line was being reinforced with concrete pillboxes, making the eventual capture of the village of Zonnebeke by the Battalion particularly costly, 250 men being either killed or wounded.[1]  Died: Cecil was killed in action near Zonnebeke on 26.9.1917 and is commemorated on the Tyne Cot Memorial to the Missing [panel 40 to 41 and 162 to 162a], Zonnebeke, West Vlaanderen, Belgium, and on the plaque within St Leonards Church, Horringer, Suffolk.[2]

Brooks, Thomas – Born: Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk in 1868.  Parents: Unknown.  Family Connections: Brother-in-law of Henry James Cook [b1875] of Long Melford.  Home: Back Lane, Long Melford (1901), Bull Lane, Long Melford (1911).  Occupation: Stockman on Farm (1901 and 1911).  Married: Sarah Ann Cook of Long Melford in 1899.  Service Record: Thomas was a member of the Long Melford Volunteer Training Corps in 1915 and 1916.[3]  Died: Sudbury, Suffolk in 1930.

Notes – [1] For details of the movements of 2^nd Suffolks see War Diary [WO 95/1437/1]; also see Murphy, Lieutenant-Colonel C. C. R. The History of the Suffolk Regiment 1914-1927 [London: Hutchinson and Co, 1928], pp.223-34.  See also his Service Medal and Award Rolls 1914-1918 [WO 329] and Service Medal and Award Rolls Index Cards 1914-1922 [WO 372]. [2] Commonwealth War Graves Commission record and British Army Registers of Soldiers’ Effects, 1901-1929 file [ref: 621041]. [3] For Training Corps articles see Suffolk and Essex Free Press 10.3.1915, 29.12.1915 and 27.12.1916.