George Thomas Henry Brooks was born on 29 July 1892 in Southend-on-Sea, Essex, one of the six children of Thomas Henry Brooks (1858-1940) and Mary Ann Elizabeth Brooks née Aston (1861-1940). His birth was registered in the 4th quarter of 1892 in the Rochford Registration District, Essex.
In the 1901 census he was shown as George T. Brooks, aged 8 years and living at 4 Albert Road, Prittlewell, Southend-on-Sea, with his parents and his father was described as a barge waterman.
On 22 October 1909, aged 17 years and giving his occupation as a shoemaker, he enlisted in the Royal Navy, service number J/5873. He was initially rated a Boy Class 2 serving at HMS Ganges II, a shore based training establishment in Harwich, Essex, before moving to HMS Antrim, a Devonshire-class armoured cruiser, on 7 February 1910 where on 10 February 1910 he was promoted to Boy Class 1. Moving to HMS Inflexible on 13 June 1910, on his 18th birthday, 29 July 1910, he signed on for 12 years and was rated as an Ordinary Seaman.
On the night of the census taken at midnight on 2 April 1911 he was shown as serving as an Ordinary Seaman on board H.M.S. Inflexible, a First Class Armoured Cruiser, under the command of Captain Charles Lionel Napier, which was off Howth Head, Dublin, Ireland. On 19 December 1911 he was rated as an Able Seaman and served on numerous other ships during World War One. He was promoted to Sailmaker's Mate on 11 June 1921, to Assistant Sailmaker on 17 October 1924 and finally to Sailmaker on 17 October on 1925. Despite having signed on for only 12 years he was still serving in December 1927.
Having left the Royal Navy, in January 1936 he was appointed as a Postman in the London Postal Service's Western District Office.
On the outbreak of World War Two he was recalled to the Royal Navy, serving at H.M.S. Pembroke, a shore based establishment in Chatham, Kent and died on the 13 August 1943, aged 51 years, at the L.C.C. Southern Hospital, Gore Road, Dartford, Kent, from bilateral otitis media and streptococcal meningitis. His death was registered in the 3rd quarter of 1943 in the Dartford Registration District, Kent and he is buried in Naval Reservation Grave 1495 in the Gillingham (Woodlands) Cemetery, Kent. He was survived by his widow Agnes Jean Brooks of Harrow, Middlesex.
He is shown as 'BROOKS G.T.H.' on the Western Postal District war memorial at Mount Pleasant, London, WC1. He is also commemorated on the Commonwealth War Graves Commissions website and on Page 36 in the Post Office Fellowship of Remembrance's Book of Remembrance 1939-1949.
Credit for this entry to: Andrew Behan.
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