Remembered on the Winsley War Memorial and Winsley Methodist Church Memorial
This page was part of the Centenary Booklet but has since been updated.
Captain Charles Alfred Brooks, formerly of the Wiltshire Regiment was attached to the 67th squadron Royal Flying Corps and then to No. 1 Squadron Australian Flying Corps. He was killed in action near Gaza, 8 July 1917, aged 29.
He was born in Turleigh on 11 December 1888 and before coming of age at 21 had already spent four years at sea as a merchant seaman. On the outbreak of War in 1914, he was granted a special reserve commission in the Wiltshire Regiment. He joined the 2nd Battalion, fighting at Neuve Chapelle between 11th and 13th of March 1915 and received a gunshot wound to his left leg. It was probably at this time that his sister Florence’s daughter had these memories which she passed on to her daughter:
My Mum had very happy memories of Charles when he came home wounded, she remembers him pushing the pram in and out of dining chairs very fast and playing with them all. The family lived at Hillside House ( just down from the memorial) during the war as Grandpa had also gone to fight, so Florence and 4 children were living with the Grandparents.
Whilst convalescing he decided to join the Royal Flying Corps (RFC), then in its infancy and on 11th September 1915 received his Royal Aero Club Aviators Certificate, number 1947. His training was undertaken at the Military School in Ruislip, Middlesex on a Maurice Farman biplane.
His picture above shows his Wiltshire Regiment badge on his lapel with the Royal Flying Corps badge below it.
He returned to France where on 1 March 1916 he was again wounded when his aircraft crashed. The RFC’s role at this time was reconnaissance reporting back to battalions as to positions that could be subjected to sustained bombardment. After a posting to Egypt where he joined the flying school at Aboukir as an instructor, he joined No 67 (Australian) Squadron. This squadron provided essential air support to the British and dominion armies’ advance into Palestine in 1917.
On 8 July 1917, whilst on patrol in a Martinsyde G100 scout single engine, twin winged aeroplane, he was attacked by two German Scout Rumpler aircraft near Gaza. One of these piloted by Vizfeldwebel Willi Kern and Oberleutnant Hurt Jancke dived at Brooks who spun away to avoid the attack and, as he did so, the wings of his aircraft were seen to fold up and the tail to fall off. The German aviator Oberleutnant Gerhardt Felmy who was also involved in the dogfight but had concentrated on Brook’s fellow aviator, T. Taylor (who was forced to land and captured), sent a letter two days later to his squadron to say that Captain Brooks had been buried with full Military honours. This seeming incongruity where those who were intent on killing each other would honour the death of their opponents was characteristic of the chivalry of rival aviators; this was a dangerous enough profession as it was with many accidents resulting in death that did not involve dogfights.
The Martinsyde G100 was nicknamed the “Elephant” by aviators as it was ungainly and clumsy when in a dogfight. It gave little protection to Charles and as there was no rear gunner on board could not defend its tail. If any firing was to be done, a gun was mounted on the top wing just above the pilot’s head who would have to stand up in the cockpit to fire it – hardly conducive to maintaining control of the plane. It was therefore easy meat for the German Rumplers which had good speed and manoeuvrability and a rapid rate of climb and a two-seater.
Gerhard Felmy survived the First World War and died in 1955. His brother Hellmuth and who was commander of Fliegerabteilung 300 in Gaza went on to become a general in Hitler’s Luftwaffe- he was convicted of war crimes at Nuremburg in 1945 and imprisoned.
Sadly the site of Charles’ grave was never recorded or subsequently identified during Felmy’s lifetime and he is therefore commemorated on the Jerusalem Memorial to the missing on Panel 44, as well as on a special German memorial to British aviators in Beersheba which is shown left. He is also commemorated in Australia as one of their war dead. Charles was awarded the 1914-15 Star, Victory and British War medals.
Charles was the third child and second son of George and Alice Brooks. In the 1891 census he is recorded as living in Rose Cottage, Turleigh. George Brooks was a local masonry contractor and employer.
By 1901 the family had moved to No. 12 Turleigh where Charles is shown as a scholar. By the 1911 census, the family had moved to Hillside in Winsley although Charles is not shown as living at home. He was eventually identified in the 1911 Census as Chas A Brooks age 23 and born in Winsley, Wiltshire. He was boarding with a family in Horsell, Woking, Surrey, where his occupation was Masonry Contractors Assistant.
Charles was an active member of Bradford on Avon Rowing Club and led the Club colours to victory in the Maiden and Junior Fours in 1913 and 1914. He acted as stroke and often brought success to his crew in open and Club Regattas.
Wiltshire Times, 15 Oct 1921
His parents were living at Windene, Winsley at the time of his death. His name is also shown on the Brooks Family grave at St Nicholas Church, Winsley.
The Bradford on Avon Rowing Club erected a Memorial in their grounds to those five members who lost their lives in World War 1. Thanks to the Rowing Club for permission to include the photos. The memorial was unveiled by George Brooks in October 1921 during a short service.
The memorial reads:
In memory of the members of the Bradford-on-Avon Rowing Club
who gave their lives for their country in the Great War 1914-1918
Charles A Brooks
Stanley A Couldridge
Leslie L Long
Alfred L Selfe
Wilson F Vennell
In 2018, to mark the centenary of the end of the War, a Memorial Cross will be placed at the War Memorial on the anniversary of his death.
Winsley at War 