Geoffrey Brooke

Geoffrey Brooke went to the Dartmouth Royal Naval College at the age of 14, and at the start of World War II served as a midshipman on the battleship Nelson, which suffered damage in December 1939 when she sailed over a magnetic mine. Brooke then served as a navigator on the destroyer Douglas before joining the new battleship Prince of Wales, which set off to the North Atlantic on 24 May 1941, along with the pride of the Royal Navy fleet, the battlecruiser Hood. Their mission was to engage in battle with the German battleship Bismarck. Sadly, the Hood was sunk, and seven months later, the Prince of Wales was also sunk off Malaya. After abandoning ship and being picked up, Brooke ended up in Singapore in February 1942 from where he escaped along with 100 others, and this became one of the most amazing escape stories of World War II. After 1,600 miles and a 37-day voyage at sea under sail, the party was picked up by a merchant ship and taken to Bombay and eventual freedom from the Japanese.

Brooke was awarded the DSC for putting out fires aboard the aircraft carrier Formidable in the latter part of the war, after it had been hit by a kamikaze aircraft. Geoffrey Brooke remained in the Navy until 1958 and then worked, first in advertising, and later as a press officer until 1985. Brooke was a good horseman and had the distinction of riding in the very last race on the Gibraltar race course before it became an airfield in 1938. Brooke also enjoyed fishing, shooting painting, photography and gardening.