Robert John Brooks   Robert John Brooks was born on 29th May 1898 in Princes Risborough, then a quiet rural village in the Buckinghamshire countryside.  His parents were Frederick, a wheelwright, and Ada Kate (nee  Chowns), a lacemaker. Robert was one of eight children, four girls and four boys.   Robert John attended Princes Risborough Church of England school. A kind and sensitive boy, he shone both academically and artistically. He had a particular aptitude for playing the organ, and became an assistant organist at the parish church of St. Mary's. On leaving school Robert John obtained a post in Paddington, West London, with a drapers and upholsterers.   In the late summer of 1916 Robert John, then just eighteen, enlisted at the army recruitment office in Paddington as a rifleman in the 2nd Rifle Brigade. Later he was transferred to the 14th (Young Citizens) Battalion of the Royal Irish Rifles. Details of his enlistment record, army training and war record are lost to history, having been destroyed in the bombing of the Army Records Office in the autumn of 1940. However, the Brooks family have a “passing out” photograph taken on March 6th 1917 of Robert John in his regimental uniform, together with inscription that “he left for France soon afterwards.”   Robert John first saw action with the 14th Battalion as part of the first attack of the 3rd Battle of Ypres at Messines between 7th and 14th June 1917. The objective of the attack was to capture the high ground at Messines Ridge, from which a continuing offensive would secure for the British coastal bases held by the German army in Flanders. Two Irish divisions led the offensive against German positions: the 16th Irish Division,and the 36th Ulster Division, of which the 14th Battalion of the Royal Irish Rifles formed a part.. Victory was achieved and the high ground at Messines Ridge taken at a relatively small human cost by the standards of the First World War.   With the Battle of Messines won the 14th Battalion then moved across the Belgian border to St. Omer in eastern France. It was here that both the  16th and 36th Divisions trained in the summer warmth of the French countryside, preparing for the second attack of the 3rd Battle of Ypres at Langemarck. On 4th August the 28 officers and 853 other ranks of the 14th Battalion moved up to the reserve line, and then on the 14th August to the front line to be ready for a planned attack on German defensive positions at Langemarck that same day.   On August 4th 1917 the rains came down and continued for the month of August. Two years of shelling had reduced the landscape to a muddy wasteland of shattered tree stumps, and shell holes into which men fell and drowned. Heavy bombardment from the German lines was continuous, officers and men of the 14th Battalion were killed and wounded in the trenches, and survivors had little sleep and were exhausted. Tanks, crucial to the success of the attack, were unable to reach the front line. The attack on Langemarck was postponed for two days until 16th August but the rain intensified. Messages relayed to senior officers in the rear that that the 14th Battalion was unfit for combat were disregarded. At 4:15 am on Thursday 16th August the men of the 14th Battalion went over the top.   Extracts from the 14th Battalion's war diary, written in real time by the second in command of the Battalion, describe in harrowing detail the events of the 16th August:   “ZERO hour received and now it will be hours of anxiety.   4:00 am: Heavy bombardment on our line, one direct hit killed six and wounded many. Dugout full of wounded, can only bandage a few of them, as we have no more dressings. Their sufferings are terrible and we cannot move.   5:00 am: Wounded pouring in... no news of how things are progressing.   5:30 am: Runners could not possible live through the machine gun fire, the strain on our nerves terrible. We know they are having a bad time and cannot assist.   5:45 am: D company held up by machine gun fire and wanted support. Support cannot be found, they have melted out of the blue. Many of our brave officers have gone down and the men are holding on.   6:00: am: E company not in touch with us anywhere and we cannot get news of them.   6:10 am: News received that the whole advance held up and the troops are falling back. [to the start line].   General report from 8:00am: During the whole of the day the Boche never ceased bombardment. News came dribbling in that we were having heavy casualties. The whole thing has become a miserable failure for reasons which are obvious to us all.   We went into action with 19 officers and 480 men, and our casualties were 5 officers killed, 4 wounded and 1 missing: 42 other ranks killed, 216 wounded and 65 missing.” [ a 67% casualty rate].   On 17th August the officer commanding the 14th Battalion wrote his report on the attack: “In my opinion the attack did not succeed owing to : The failure of the {British} barrage to neutralise the machine gun fire from the strong [German] positions immediately in front of the starting point. The exceedingly boggy nature of the ground, which with uncut [barbed] wire, brought men together onto bands of machine gun fire. The serious reduction in strength of the supporting wave [of troops], “moppers up” and support battalion prior to ZERO.”   Neither the 14th Battalion war diary nor the battalion commander’s report make specific mention of the death of Robert John Brooks. However, what these documents show is that it is highly likely that on 16th August 1917 he was killed either waiting to go over the top or during the advance of the 14th Battalion across no man’s land.   At the end of the war in 1918 the Brooks family made repeated attempts to find out more about his death but were told only that he was “Reported dead, presumed missing”, now amended in regimental records to “Killed in action”. It was only in 1998 that the family learnt that his remains had been found, and that he had been buried in the New Irish Farm Cemetery at Ypres since 1927.   Robert John is remembered with honour on the Brooks family gravestone in the churchyard of St. Mary’s Church in Princes Risborough, and on the Princes Risborough war memorial, which is in the Market Square.   Each November 11th since his death descendants of the Brooks family pay their personal tribute to Robert John Brooks by placing a poppy over a photograph of him in army uniform.   John Andrews Robert John Brookes    Robert John Brooks was born on 29th May 1898 in Princes Risborough, then a quiet rural village in the Buckinghamshire countryside.  His parents were Frederick, a wheelwright, and Ada Kate (nee  Chowns), a lacemaker. Robert was one of eight children, four girls and four boys.   Robert John attended Princes Risborough Church of England school. A kind and sensitive boy, he shone both academically and artistically. He had a particular aptitude for playing the organ, and became an assistant organist at the parish church of St. Mary's. On leaving school Robert John obtained a post in Paddington, West London, with a drapers and upholsterers.  In the late summer of 1916 Robert John, then just eighteen, enlisted at the army recruitment office in Paddington as a rifleman in the 2nd Rifle Brigade. Later he was transferred to the 14th (Young Citizens) Battalion of the Royal Irish Rifles. Details of his enlistment record, army training and war record are lost to history, having been destroyed in the bombing of the Army Records Office in the autumn of 1940. However, the Brooks family have a “passing out” photograph taken on March 6th 1917 of Robert John in his regimental uniform, together with inscription that “he left for France soon afterwards.”   Robert John first saw action with the 14th Battalion as part of the first attack of the 3rd Battle of Ypres at Messines between 7th and 14th June 1917. The objective of the attack was to capture the high ground at Messines Ridge, from which a continuing offensive would secure for the British coastal bases held by the German army in Flanders. Two Irish divisions led the offensive against German positions: the 16th Irish Division,and the 36th Ulster Division, of which the 14th Battalion of the Royal Irish Rifles formed a part.. Victory was achieved and the high ground at Messines Ridge taken at a relatively small human cost by the standards of the First World War.   With the Battle of Messines won the 14th Battalion then moved across the Belgian border to St. Omer in eastern France. It was here that both the 6th and 36th Divisions trained in the summer warmth of the French countryside, preparing for the second attack of the 3rd Battle of Ypres at Langemarck. On 4th August the 28 officers and 853 other ranks of the 14th Battalion moved up to the reserve line, and then on the 14th August to the front line to be ready for a planned attack on German defensive positions at Langemarck that same day.   On August 14th 1917 the rains came down and continued for the month of August. Two years of shelling had reduced the landscape to a muddy wasteland of shattered tree stumps, and shell holes into which men fell and drowned. Heavy bombardment from the German lines was continuous, officers and men of the 14th Battalion were killed and wounded in the trenches, and survivors had little sleep and were exhausted. Tanks, crucial to the success of the attack, were unable to reach the front line. The attack on Langemarck was postponed for two days until 16th August but the rain intensified. Messages relayed to senior officers in the rear that that the 14th Battalion was unfit for combat were disregarded. At 4:15 am on Thursday 16th August the men of the 14th Battalion went over the top.   Extracts from the 14th Battalion's war diary, written in real time by the second in command of the Battalion, describe in harrowing detail the events of the 16th August:   “ZERO hour received and now it will be hours of anxiety.   4:00 am: Heavy bombardment on our line, one direct hit killed six and wounded many. Dugout full of wounded, can only bandage a few of them, as we have no more dressings. Their sufferings are terrible and we cannot move.   5:00 am: Wounded pouring in... no news of how things are progressing.   5:30 am: Runners could not possible live through the machine gun fire, the strain on our nerves terrible. We know they are having a bad time and cannot assist.   5:45 am: D company held up by machine gun fire and wanted support. Support cannot be found, they have melted out of the blue. Many of our brave officers have gone down and the men are holding on.   6:00: am: E company not in touch with us anywhere and we cannot get news of them.   6:10 am: News received that the whole advance held up and the troops are falling back. [to the start line].   General report from 8:00am: During the whole of the day the Boche never ceased bombardment. News came dribbling in that we were having heavy casualties. The whole thing has become a miserable failure for reasons which are obvious to us all.   We went into action with 19 officers and 480 men, and our casualties were 5 officers killed, 4 wounded and 1 missing: 42 other ranks killed, 216 wounded and 65 missing.” [ a 67% casualty rate].   On 17th August the officer commanding the 14th Battalion wrote his report on the attack: “In my opinion the attack did not succeed owing to the: The failure of the {British} barrage to neutralise the machine gun fire from the strong [German] positions immediately in front of the starting point. The exceedingly boggy nature of the ground, which with uncut [barbed] wire, brought men together onto bands of machine gun fire. The serious reduction in strength of the supporting wave [of troops], “moppers up” and support battalion prior to ZERO.”   Neither the 14th Battalion war diary nor the battalion commander’s report make specific mention of the death of Robert John Brooks. However, what these documents show is that it is highly likely that on 16th August 1917 he was killed either waiting to go over the top or during the advance of the 14th Battalion across no man’s land.   At the end of the war in 1918 the Brooks family made repeated attempts to find out more about his death but were told only that he was “Reported dead, presumed missing”, now amended in regimental records to “Killed in action”. It was only in 1998 that the family learnt that his remains had been found, and that he had been buried in the New Irish Farm Cemetery at Ypres since 1927.   Robert John is remembered with honour on the Brooks family gravestone in the churchyard of St. Mary’s Church in Princes Risborough, and on the Princes Risborough war memorial, which is in the Market Square.   Each November 11th since his death descendants of the Brooks family pay their personal tribute to Robert John Brooks by placing a poppy over a photograph of him in army uniform.   John Andrews                                   Robert John Brooks   Robert John Brooks was born on 29th May 1898 in Princes Risborough, then a quiet rural village in the Buckinghamshire countryside.  His parents were Frederick, a wheelwright, and Ada Kate (nee  Chowns), a lacemaker. Robert was one of eight children, four girls and four boys.   Robert John attended Princes Risborough Church of England school. A kind and sensitive boy, he shone both academically and artistically. He had a particular aptitude for playing the organ, and became an assistant organist at the parish church of St. Mary's. On leaving school Robert John obtained a post in Paddington, West London, with a drapers and upholsterers.   In the late summer of 1916 Robert John, then just eighteen, enlisted at the army recruitment office in Paddington as a rifleman in the 2nd Rifle Brigade. Later he was transferred to the 14th (Young Citizens) Battalion of the Royal Irish Rifles. Details of his enlistment record, army training and war record are lost to history, having been destroyed in the bombing of the Army Records Office in the autumn of 1940. However, the Brooks family have a “passing out” photograph taken on March 6th 1917 of Robert John in his regimental uniform, together with inscription that “he left for France soon afterwards.”   Robert John first saw action with the 14th Battalion as part of the first attack of the 3rd Battle of Ypres at Messines between 7th and 14th June 1917. The objective of the attack was to capture the high ground at Messines Ridge, from which a continuing offensive would secure for the British coastal bases held by the German army in Flanders. Two Irish divisions led the offensive against German positions: the 16th Irish Division,and the 36th Ulster Division, of which the 14th Battalion of the Royal Irish Rifles formed a part.. Victory was achieved and the high ground at Messines Ridge taken at a relatively small human cost by the standards of the First World War.   With the Battle of Messines won the 14th Battalion then moved across the Belgian border to St. Omer in eastern France. It was here that both the 6th and 36th Divisions trained in the summer warmth of the French countryside, preparing for the second attack of the 3rd Battle of Ypres at Langemarck. On 4th August the 28 officers and 853 other ranks of the 14th Battalion moved up to the reserve line, and then on the 14th August to the front line to be ready for a planned attack on German defensive positions at Langemarck that same day.   On August 4th 1917 the rains came down and continued for the month of August. Two years of shelling had reduced the landscape to a muddy wasteland of shattered tree stumps, and shell holes into which men fell and drowned. Heavy bombardment from the German lines was continuous, officers and men of the 14th Battalion were killed and wounded in the trenches, and survivors had little sleep and were exhausted. Tanks, crucial to the success of the attack, were unable to reach the front line. The attack on Langemarck was postponed for two days until 16th August but the rain intensified. Messages relayed to senior officers in the rear that that the 14th Battalion was unfit for combat were disregarded. At 4:15 am on Thursday 16th August the men of the 14th Battalion went over the top.   Extracts from the 14th Battalion's war diary, written in real time by the second in command of the Battalion, describe in harrowing detail the events of the 16th August:   “ZERO hour received and now it will be hours of anxiety.   4:00 am: Heavy bombardment on our line, one direct hit killed six and wounded many. Dugout full of wounded, can only bandage a few of them, as we have no more dressings. Their sufferings are terrible and we cannot move.   5:00 am: Wounded pouring in... no news of how things are progressing.   5:30 am: Runners could not possible live through the machine gun fire, the strain on our nerves terrible. We know they are having a bad time and cannot assist.   5:45 am: D company held up by machine gun fire and wanted support. Support cannot be found, they have melted out of the blue. Many of our brave officers have gone down and the men are holding on.   6:00: am: E company not in touch with us anywhere and we cannot get news of them.   6:10 am: News received that the whole advance held up and the troops are falling back. [to the start line].   General report from 8:00am: During the whole of the day the Boche never ceased bombardment. News came dribbling in that we were having heavy casualties. The whole thing has become a miserable failure for reasons which are obvious to us all.   We went into action with 19 officers and 480 men, and our casualties were 5 officers killed, 4 wounded and 1 missing: 42 other ranks killed, 216 wounded and 65 missing.” [ a 67% casualty rate].   On 17th August the officer commanding the 14th Battalion wrote his report on the attack: “In my opinion the attack did not succeed owing to the: The failure of the {British} barrage to neutralise the machine gun fire from the strong [German] positions immediately in front of the starting point. The exceedingly boggy nature of the ground, which with uncut [barbed] wire, brought men together onto bands of machine gun fire. The serious reduction in strength of the supporting wave [of troops], “moppers up” and support battalion prior to ZERO.”   Neither the 14th Battalion war diary nor the battalion commander’s report make specific mention of the death of Robert John Brooks. However, what these documents show is that it is highly likely that on 16th August 1917 he was killed either waiting to go over the top or during the advance of the 14th Battalion across no man’s land.   At the end of the war in 1918 the Brooks family made repeated attempts to find out more about his death but were told only that he was “Reported dead, presumed missing”, now amended in regimental records to “Killed in action”. It was only in 1998 that the family learnt that his remains had been found, and that he had been buried in the New Irish Farm Cemetery at Ypres since 1927.   Robert John is remembered with honour on the Brooks family gravestone in the churchyard of St. Mary’s Church in Princes Risborough, and on the Princes Risborough war memorial, which is in the Market Square.   Each November 11th since his death descendants of the Brooks family pay their personal tribute to Robert John Brooks by placing a poppy over a photograph of him in army uniform.   John Andrews   Robert John Brooks   Robert John Brooks was born on 29th May 1898 in Princes Risborough, then a quiet rural village in the Buckinghamshire countryside.  His parents were Frederick, a wheelwright, and Ada Kate (nee  Chowns), a lacemaker. Robert was one of eight children, four girls and four boys.   Robert John attended Princes Risborough Church of England school. A kind and sensitive boy, he shone both academically and artistically. He had a particular aptitude for playing the organ, and became an assistant organist at the parish church of St. Mary's. On leaving school Robert John obtained a post in Paddington, West London, with a drapers and upholsterers.   In the late summer of 1916 Robert John, then just eighteen, enlisted at the army recruitment office in Paddington as a rifleman in the 2nd Rifle Brigade. Later he was transferred to the 14th (Young Citizens) Battalion of the Royal Irish Rifles. Details of his enlistment record, army training and war record are lost to history, having been destroyed in the bombing of the Army Records Office in the autumn of 1940. However, the Brooks family have a “passing out” photograph taken on March 6th 1917 of Robert John in his regimental uniform, together with inscription that “he left for France soon afterwards.”   Robert John first saw action with the 14th Battalion as part of the first attack of the 3rd Battle of Ypres at Messines between 7th and 14th June 1917. The objective of the attack was to capture the high ground at Messines Ridge, from which a continuing offensive would secure for the British coastal bases held by the German army in Flanders. Two Irish divisions led the offensive against German positions: the 16th Irish Division,and the 36th Ulster Division, of which the 14th Battalion of the Royal Irish Rifles formed a part.. Victory was achieved and the high ground at Messines Ridge taken at a relatively small human cost by the standards of the First World War.   With the Battle of Messines won the 14th Battalion then moved across the Belgian border to St. Omer in eastern France. It was here that both the 6th and 36th Divisions trained in the summer warmth of the French countryside, preparing for the second attack of the 3rd Battle of Ypres at Langemarck. On 4th August the 28 officers and 853 other ranks of the 14th Battalion moved up to the reserve line, and then on the 14th August to the front line to be ready for a planned attack on German defensive positions at Langemarck that same day.   On August 4th 1917 the rains came down and continued for the month of August. Two years of shelling had reduced the landscape to a muddy wasteland of shattered tree stumps, and shell holes into which men fell and drowned. Heavy bombardment from the German lines was continuous, officers and men of the 14th Battalion were killed and wounded in the trenches, and survivors had little sleep and were exhausted. Tanks, crucial to the success of the attack, were unable to reach the front line. The attack on Langemarck was postponed for two days until 16th August but the rain intensified. Messages relayed to senior officers in the rear that that the 14th Battalion was unfit for combat were disregarded. At 4:15 am on Thursday 16th August the men of the 14th Battalion went over the top.   Extracts from the 14th Battalion's war diary, written in real time by the second in command of the Battalion, describe in harrowing detail the events of the 16th August:   “ZERO hour received and now it will be hours of anxiety.   4:00 am: Heavy bombardment on our line, one direct hit killed six and wounded many. Dugout full of wounded, can only bandage a few of them, as we have no more dressings. Their sufferings are terrible and we cannot move.   5:00 am: Wounded pouring in... no news of how things are progressing.   5:30 am: Runners could not possible live through the machine gun fire, the strain on our nerves terrible. We know they are having a bad time and cannot assist.   5:45 am: D company held up by machine gun fire and wanted support. Support cannot be found, they have melted out of the blue. Many of our brave officers have gone down and the men are holding on.   6:00: am: E company not in touch with us anywhere and we cannot get news of them.   6:10 am: News received that the whole advance held up and the troops are falling back. [to the start line].   General report from 8:00am: During the whole of the day the Boche never ceased bombardment. News came dribbling in that we were having heavy casualties. The whole thing has become a miserable failure for reasons which are obvious to us all.   We went into action with 19 officers and 480 men, and our casualties were 5 officers killed, 4 wounded and 1 missing: 42 other ranks killed, 216 wounded and 65 missing.” [ a 67% casualty rate].   On 17th August the officer commanding the 14th Battalion wrote his report on the attack: “In my opinion the attack did not succeed owing to the: The failure of the {British} barrage to neutralise the machine gun fire from the strong [German] positions immediately in front of the starting point. The exceedingly boggy nature of the ground, which with uncut [barbed] wire, brought men together onto bands of machine gun fire. The serious reduction in strength of the supporting wave [of troops], “moppers up” and support battalion prior to ZERO.”   Neither the 14th Battalion war diary nor the battalion commander’s report make specific mention of the death of Robert John Brooks. However, what these documents show is that it is highly likely that on 16th August 1917 he was killed either waiting to go over the top or during the advance of the 14th Battalion across no man’s land.   At the end of the war in 1918 the Brooks family made repeated attempts to find out more about his death but were told only that he was “Reported dead, presumed missing”, now amended in regimental records to “Killed in action”. It was only in 1998 that the family learnt that his remains had been found, and that he had been buried in the New Irish Farm Cemetery at Ypres since 1927.   Robert John is remembered with honour on the Brooks family gravestone in the churchyard of St. Mary’s Church in Princes Risborough, and on the Princes Risborough war memorial, which is in the Market Square.   Each November 11th since his death descendants of the Brooks family pay their personal tribute to Robert John Brooks by placing a poppy over a photograph of him in army uniform.   John Andrews                                 

John Andrews