1/7th Battalion Royal Warwickshires War DiaryThe Personal Diary of Sergeant Edward Brookes Service No: 1168 of 46 Craners Road, Coventry. |
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| This Book is of little value
accept to owner please return to above address. (1915) |
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| April 17th | - Battle in Ypres distant. Billeted in Barnes at Petit Point | |||||||||||
| April 18th April 19th April 20th |
- Nothing doing - Night Digging - Back to our Trench |
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| April 21st April 22nd |
- April 21st Had one or two shells over
Trench - Trench Shelled just heard that where battle been to at Hill 60 been at it now for nearly a fortnight. |
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| April 23rd April 24th |
- Shelled us again getting used to it
now |
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| April 25th April 26th April 27th April 28th April 29th April 30th May 1st |
- Working party night digging - Resting, Inspections etc - Night Digging. - Back to Trenches - Rather Quiet - Brummy Green stopped one in arm - Shelled worse than ever no casualties in our Coy. D Coy lost 5 men wounded |
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| May 2nd | - Relieved by 8th coming back to billet where ordered to man reserve trenches so returned at 6am on May 3rd. | |||||||||||
School of InstructionMonday Roll & instruction of falling in, lecture on Map Reading Tuesday Squad Drill, Lecture Trenches Captain Moss. Wednesday Squad Drill, Extended Order, Lecture Trenches Captain Moss. Thursday Physical Drill, Bayonet Fighting, Company Drill, Lecture Trenches Captain Moss. Friday Extended Order, Company Drill, Parts of Rifles, Lecture Pay & Mess by Quartermaster. Saturday Company Drill |
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| Sergeant Edward (Ted) Brookes,
1/7th Bn., Royal Warwickshire Regt celebrated his 36th birthday in
the trenches on 1st May 1915 and was killed only 10 days later. At
home Edward left his wife Florrie Brookes nee’ Beesley and two
children Lillian Aged 10 & Lewis Aged 8.
Edward originally a member of the Old Volunteers rejoined the Territorials
in May 1909. He was given orders to seek out the sniper who had
been taking pot shots at them so he set off with a small search
party which included his brother in law Jim Beesley unfortunately
they searched in vain. It was as they were returning to camp that
Jim felt a bullet pass by, he though this is it I’m a goner
then he realised that his brother in law was hit, Edward had been
shot in the back. In a letter to his widow Captain Hanson said “Your
husband was a sergeant in my company and his death was a great blow
to me and to the whole company with whom he was always very popular.
He was shot at about 1am on May 11th while returning from a patrol.
He died an hour after being wounded and was unconscious for some
considerable time before he died. Please accept my very deepest
sympathy and the sympathy of the whole company in your loss. Edward
Brookes is buried at La Plus Douve Farm Cemetery Belgium. |
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Lewis Brookes Born 1885 Coventry |
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Territorials
at Camp |
William Brookes Born 1881 Coventry |
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| Coventry A Century of News - Alton Douglas, Jo Douglas | ||||||||||||
| This book was originally produced to mark 100 years of Publishing by the Coventry Evening Telegraph/Midland Daily Telegraph. This book is packed with photographs and articles from the papers 100 year history. It shows the changes in local industry from Watches & Bikes to Cars and the changing shape of the city itself. | ||||||||||||
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| © J Hewitt Family Researcher | ||||||||||||