Name
Hugh Cyril Arthur Brooking
15 September 1870
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
31/05/1918
48
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Captain
North Somerset Yeomanry
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 (Mons) Star, British War and Victory Medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
FROME (ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST) CHURCHYARD
Near South wall of Church.
United Kingdom
Headstone Inscription
None
UK & Other Memorials
Memorial Plaque, St Lawrence Church, Bovingdon Memorial Plaque, Memorial Hall, Bovingdon Lancing College Memorial, Sussex
Pre War
Hugh Cyril Arthur Brooking was born on and baptised on 23 Oct 1870 in Bovingdon, Hertfordshire, the son of Rev Arthur Conolly Brooking (Vicar of Bovingdon) and Marian Frances Georgiana (Ryder) Brooking. He was one of six children and had three stepsiblings from his father's first marriage.
He was educated at Lancing College in Fields House from January 1884 to July 1888. He went to South Africa in 1890 and became manager of the Filibussi Gold Mine, however on the 1891 Census, he was recorded as living at West Hill House, Frome, Somerset with his widowed mother, siblings and stepsiblings with five servants. His father had died in Frome in 1890, aged 80.
He was gazetted 2nd Lieutenant North Somerset Yeomanry on 9 October 1895 and promoted to Lieutenant on 8 August 1903. He served in South Africa, at Mafeking and at Ladysmith and spent a period of time with the Colonial Office and the South African Police. He was promoted to Captain on 5 November 1904 and re-joined his Regiment in 1906, but resigned his commission soon after and returned to Somerset in 1907.
On the 1911 Census he was said to be of private means and a boarder living at the Rose and Crown Inn, Nether Stowey, Somerset. His future father in law, Frederick Day was the landlord of the Rose and Crown Inn.
He married Florence Eugenie Day in 1912 in Williton, Somerset and had two sons, Granville Reginald Arthur (1912) and Hugh Glyn Lawrence Arthur (1914). Granville was baptised on 12 August 1913 at St Decuman's Church, Somerset, at which time Hugh's profession was said to be a Police Officer.
His widow later lived at Belgrave House, Camden Road, Bath.
(N.B. Banns were recorded at St James, Piccadilly, Westminster between Hugh Cyril Arthur Brooking and Anna Elizabeth Dickenson, and at St Judes's South Kensington on 28 July, 4 and 11 August. Their address was given as Brunswick Hotel, Jermyn Street, but the marriage does not appear to have taken place.)
Wartime Service
At the outbreak of war, Hugh re-joined his old regiment as Captain on 8 August 1914 and arrived in France on 2 November 1914.
Despite being sent back to the UK in July 1915 because he was “prematurely worn out”, he returned to France in Dec 1916 with the Royal Field Artillery but finally suffered from chronic rheumatism and came back to England.
He died on 31 May 1918 in Purfleet Military Hospital, Essex of septicaemia following a finger injury and is buried in St John the Baptist Churchyard, Frome, Somerset.
Additional Information
His widow Florence received pay owing of £225 16s 3d. Probate was granted to his widow in London with effects of £219 14s 6d. (address given as Manor Road Camp, West Ham, Essex.)
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
Malcolm Lennox, Dick West, www.dacorumheritage.org.uk, www.hambo.org/lancing
