Brooks, Warwick

Warwick Brooks was born in Cardiff, Wales on 9 June 1888. He arrived in Montreal, Canada on 8 May 1904 aboard SS Bavarian suggesting that he may have been part of the British home boys programme. He made his way to Southern Ontario in the Niagara-on-the-Lake area and was employed on a farm.

He attested to the Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF) on 14 June 1915 at Niagara Camp at Niagara-on-the-Lake and was assigned to the 37th Canadian Infantry Battalion (Northern Ontario) giving a Major A.J. Ansley, a Canadian militia officer, as his next of kin. He shipped out 27 November 1915 aboard SS Lapland arriving two weeks later in the United Kingdom. There he was initially reassigned to the 17th Reserve Battalion but in April 1916 was assigned to his combat unit, the 43rd Canadian Infantry Battalion (Cameron Highlanders of Canada) and sent to France 7 April 1916. That unit was heavily engaged in the Ypres Salient in an area the unit diary refers to as “Belgian Chateau”. The shelling on both sides was at this time incessant. Brooks may have been part of the detail of sixty-six men noted to have arrived at the base camp on 8 May as replacements. A week later the 43rd moved to the trenches in the salient to relieve the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry (PPCLI) near Sanctuary Wood and the Cumberland dugouts area. Artillery activity was a daily occurrence and the unit suffered frequent casualties. On 22 May 1916 aircraft and artillery activity was particularly intense with parapets blown in and the dressing station destroyed. Four men were killed in the course of the shell fire - including Private Brooks.

Brooks is buried in the Maple Copse Cemetery (Sp Mem J. 18) in Leper Town near Ypres and is commemorated on page 59 of the First World War Book of Remembrance.