Ypres, 29 October
As there were no prepared trench positions and little cover the battalions were told that unless the enemy attacked very early the next day they were to withdraw. At daybreak on the 29th no such attack had materialized and subsequently the two supporting battalions withdrew to Veldhoek at about 06.45 hours. They had hardly been gone half-an-hour when the enemy opened a heavy bombardment on the Grenadier Guards and in the prevailing fog they swept down on the left flank in large numbers. The Grenadiers were gradually forced back westwards but the survivors, assisted by the 2nd Gordon Highlanders, made two counter-attacks, in order to regain the lost ground. The enemy numbers were, however, overwhelming and the Grenadiers had to retire to a ditch on the south side of the Menin road, east of Gheluvelt. There they were joined by the 2nd Border Regiment from reserve. The Grenadiers remained in these positions for the rest of the day. At the end of the day they had lost 15 officers and 470 men out of the original 20 officers and 670 men.
The 2nd Gordon Highlanders on the right of the Grenadiers were attacked on their front and had just been able to hold to their trenches. Cyril Falls writes in the Regimental History that, ‘At the worst moment, when a counter-attack had failed and the defence had seemed on the edge of disaster, the heroism of Lt. J.A.O. Brooke had done much to restore it. He was killed on the south edge of the Ypres-Menin road, half a mile east of Gheluvelt village, and his body was left behind. Brooke received the posthumous award of the VC.
The VC citation reads:
Brooke led two attacks on the German trenches under heavy rifle fire and machine-gun fire, regaining a lost trench at a very critical moment. By his marked coolness and promptitude on this occasion, Brooke prevented the enemy from breaking through our line at a time when a general counter-attack could not have been organized. Having regained the lost trench, he went back to bring up supports and in doing so was killed.
Brooke had been given a message by his colonel who had noticed that the Germans were breaking through part of the line. He promptly rallied a group of cooks, orderlies, signalmen and servants for assistance with the attack; most of them were killed along with Lt. Brooke and their captain. The battalion lost about 7 officers and 100 men during the day and some 240 dead Germans were counted in front of one platoon alone.
At about 16.00 hours the Scots Guards and the Queens (sent from 1st Brigade) advanced down the Menin road and retrieved the original line held by the Grenadiers in the morning. At nightfall the 20th Brigade was withdrawn to Veldhoek, while rain came down in torrents until midnight. The history of the 7th Division described the events in the following way:
The stubborn resistance of the overmatched 20th Brigade had at least prevented the Germans south of the Menin road from keeping level with their progress north of the Menin Road (and some had nearly reached Gheluvelt). Two days later the village did actually fall to the Germans but was recovered by the Worcester regiment on a day of considerable crisis during the first battle of Ypres.
Lt. Brooke was buried in Zantvoorde British Cemetery VI, E, 2. His VC was gazetted on 18 February 1915 and presented to his father the following year.
James Anson Otho Brooke was the son of Capt. Harry Vesey Brooke, JP, DL, later 92nd Gordon Highlanders, and his wife, Patricia Eyres. His father came from Colebrook, County Fermanagh, and was an uncle of Field Marshal Visc Allanbrooke. The house was a gift from his father’s family. He was born on 3 February 1884 at Lickleyhead Castle, a medieval castle near Auchleven and south of Insch, Aberdeenshire. The family moved soon after to Fairley House, Newhills. He was educated at Winton House in Winchester, Wellington College from January 1898–November 1900, and later several crammers and the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, where he was captain of the Shooting Eight. He was also an accomplished horseman and footballer and became senior colour-sergeant of the Military College, and winner of the Sword of Honour.
On 11 October 1905 Brooke was commissioned into the Gordon Highlanders and joined the 1st Battalion at Cork in November. He was promoted to full lieutenant on 5 August 1907, and then transferred to the 2nd Battalion in India. Here he was recognized as the smartest young officer in the regiment and the best of sportsmen (he killed many head of game). He took part in the Delhi Durbar in 1911 when he received the new battalion colours from the King and was awarded the Durbar Medal. In 1913 he left India and when the European War broke out he was serving in Egypt. He was promoted to captain on 11 September 1914 although most accounts of his heroism describe him as being a lieutenant. In October he reached Belgium, landing at Zeebrugge and took part in the severe fighting for several days. On 29 October he was the battalion assistant adjutant.
Brooke’s VC was presented to his father, Capt. H.V. Brooke, at Buckingham Palace on 29 November 1916. Capt. Brooke had lost three sons in the First World War and one son-in-law. His health was badly affected by these tragedies. After the war, when the local war memorial was due to be unveiled by Capt. Brooke, his health was not up to it and the ceremony had to be performed by another local dignitary. Later this memorial was moved to a new position in front of the church at Kingswells. Although James Brooke is buried in Belgium his memory is also commemorated at the Springbank Cemetery, Aberdeen, in the family grave. The memorial bears the following inscription:
Erected by Captain Harry V. Brooke of Fairley late 92nd Gordon Highlanders in memory of his four sons.
Rupert born 12th September, 1896, died 27th September 1896.
Eldest son James Anson Otho Brooke, VC, Captain 2nd Gordon Highlanders. Born 3rd February 1884, killed in action at Gheluvelt 29th October 1914.
Henry Brian Brooke, Captain 2nd Gordon Highlanders. Born 9th December 1889, mortally wounded at Mametz, died 24 July 1916.
Patrick Harry Brooke, Sub-Lt. R.N. Born 21st May 1895. Died on active service from enteric fever, 25th May 1917.
Here lies the body of their father Capt. Sir Harry Vesey Brooke, KBE.
2nd son of Sir Arthur B. Brooke, Bart. of Colebrooke.
Born 23 September 1845, died 10th June 1921.
And his beloved wife Patricia Eyres Brooke.
Born 1859, died 1951.
GLORIA FINIS
Up to the 1990s a rough wooden cross which had marked the grave where James had been buried in Zantvoorde British Cemetery, Belgium, stood at the foot of the tombstone but this is now in the safe keeping of the Regimental Museum, along with his service revolver. The family gravestone is about 10 feet high and bears a Celtic Cross inscription within the family grave. There is a granite, waist-high stone on either side of the taller tombstone where other members of the family are commemorated.
The parish church at Kingswells also commemorates the names of the Brooke family.
Capt. James Brooke also posthumously received the 1914 Star with clasp, the BWM, and the Victory Medal with MID Oakleaf. All his medals are in the collection of the Gordon Highlanders at their museum in Aberdeen. Brooke is also commemorated on the War Memorials at Aberdeen, Colebrook, St Ronan’s church, Colebrook, and with a large mortar he captured, which is displayed at Enniskillen Castle.
A. MARTIN-LEAKE
Near Zonnebeke, Belgium, 29 October to 8 November
Arthur Martin-Leake was awarded the very last Victoria Cross presented in the Boer War for his bravery and courage in February 1902. Nearly thirteen years later he won a bar or clasp to his VC in the third month of the First World War and was the first man to do so.
Leake had arrived in France from Calcutta where on 5 August news reached him of the declaration of war in Europe. He had immediately applied for permission to travel to France. He journeyed by a circuitous route and arrived in Paris via Marseilles on 30 August dressed in an ancient volunteer Indian uniform. After an adventurous journey, during which he only just missed being arrested in Malta, he was treated with some suspicion and was advised to go to the War Office in London and ask for instructions. Once there, he saw there were vacancies for Medical Officers in France and immediately applied for one of t
hese posts, with the Fifth Field Ambulance attached to the 2nd Division (I Corps). He was posted as a lieutenant.
Leake first joined his unit when it was on the Aisne in September. This was before it was sent northwards to help cover the Channel Ports, to the north of the Belgian city of Ypres. The first battle for the possession of the town began in real earnest on 19 October and was to last for nearly five weeks. The Germans were determined to put pressure on the town from north-east, east and south-east and to ‘pinch’ out the position.
Similarly the Allies were going to use the town as a place to stand and fight for, although it was not particularly well-suited as a defensive position. During the rest of October the battles raged in great intensity and the 2nd Division was positioned on a line between Ypres and the village of Passchendaele to the north-east of Ypres. This was where the Allied Armies joined on the extreme left wing of the front line, always a point of weakness to be exploited by the enemy. The 1st, 7th and 4th Divisions together with the 1st Cavalry Division were to the right of the 2nd Division. The Germans opposite were units from the German Fourth Army.
At the end of October at Zonnebeke the British made an attack against the German trenches. This subsequently failed owing to the withering fire of the enemy machine guns and rifle fire. The British survivors, leaving a great number of dead and wounded, withdrew to their original lines. The enemy then appeared to expect a second attack and were nervous, firing off at any sign of movement in the Allied positions. It was during these circumstances, that Leake, at great risk to himself, crawled out to drag back as many of the wounded as he could. He was not concerned with the possible loss of his own life but more in saving the lives of his comrades.
On 31 January 1915 Field Marshal Sir John French recommended him to receive a clasp to his VC. He had already been recommended by Maj. Gen. C.C. Monroe of 2nd Division on 26 November 1914.
This officer has shown such conspicuous gallantry that I recommend his case be favourably considered, and that he be granted a bar to the Victoria Cross that he already holds.
At Zonnebeke, when he was with the Bearer Division of the 5th Field Ambulance, in a most exposed position, he went continually over the ground in between the English and German positions in search for wounded and though always fired at, and often having to crawl on hands and knees, he was able to get away large numbers of wounded men who would otherwise have been left to the inclemency of the weather and continual shelling of the enemy. These operations often took many hours to accomplish. There can be no doubt by his devotion many lives have been saved that would otherwise undoubtedly have been lost. His behaviour on three occasions when the dressing station was heavily shelled on the 5th November, 9th November and 12th November was such as to inspire confidence both with the wounded and the staff.
In such a case it is not possible to quote any one specific act performed because his gallant conduct was continual, and the fact that he repeatedly successfully accomplished his dangerous mission makes his case, in my opinion, all the more worthy of reward.
I also recommend Captain Loughman, RAMC, who accompanied Captain Leake should be awarded with a DSO.
Two days later Sir Douglas Haig also gave his recommendation for the award of the second VC. For this and similar actions in the days up to 8 November Leake was awarded a clasp to his VC, which was gazetted on 18 February 1915.
Since no man had won the medal twice before, there was some confusion as to how the award should be made. It was first listed as a clasp and later became known as a bar to his VC. There was even confusion as to the design of the new medal. Messrs Hancock, who had been making the Cross since its inception in 1856, sought instructions from the War Office and also submitted designs of their own which still exist in the National Archives, ref. WO 32/4992. In the end a clasp was fixed to Leake’s original decoration after it had been sent from India in the spring of 1915. The medal had been left in Calcutta when Leake left India for France. Leake’s brother, Capt. W. Martin-Leake, sent it to the War Office from his home, ‘Marshalls’, in Hertfordshire on 31 March 1915.
The publicity surrounding Leake’s second award aroused considerable interest in Britain and several other ‘double VC claims’ were put forward. Leake’s was the first of what eventually were to be three such awards.
In March 1915 Leake was made captain, and on 30 June he was awarded the British Medical Association’s Gold Medal. He was presented with the bar to his VC by the King at Windsor Castle on 24 July 1915.
The Martin-Leake family had owned the house ‘Marshalls’, High Cross, near Ware in Hertfordshire, for about two hundred years and in the 1930s three brothers and one sister still lived there. This is the house where Lt. Col. Arthur Martin-Leake lived for the last fifteen years of his life. Arthur was the fifth of six sons and the seventh child of Stephen Martin-Leake and Isabel, née Plunkett. The couple had married in 1859. They also had two daughters. Stephen used the name of Martin Leake (without a hyphen) when he was a magistrate in the First World War. He himself was buried in Thorpe-Le-Soken, Essex, where many of his forebears lay. The family also owned Thorpe Hall.
Arthur was born at ‘Marshalls’ on 4 April 1874. He was educated at Westminster School, London, and University College Hospital, London, where he became Assistant Demonstrator in anatomy and physiology. He qualified as Member of the Royal College of Surgeons (MRCS), and Licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians (LRCP) in 1898, when he was appointed house-physician at the hospital. Leake later held a residential appointment at the West Herts Infirmary in Hemel Hempstead, in the capacity of House Surgeon and Assistant Secretary.
Soon after the South African War broke out in October 1899 Leake joined the Hertfordshire Imperial Yeomanry as a trooper: his number was 5778. He had seen action during the South African War at Prinsloo’s surrender and the relief of Hoar’s laager. When his company returned to England, he remained in South Africa and became a civilian surgeon employed by the military. In 1900 he transferred to the Baden-Powell Police and later received the rank of surgeon captain with the South African Constabulary in May 1901. Ladysmith had been relieved, followed by Mafeking in May and yet the war still dragged on with the Boers employing guerilla tactics. The British, however, began to apply a slow method of attrition which brought the hostilities to an effective end in May 1902. Seventy-seven VCs had been awarded in the South African campaign and Leake won the seventy-eighth. The last to be awarded of the Boer War.
He won this first VC at Vlakfontein, in a district of Transvaal, south-east of Johannesburg, on 8 February 1902. A line of posts was to be moved forward in order to delay an advance by the Boers. At 03.30 hours a reconnoitring party found itself only 400 yards from the enemy and had to retreat to positions further back. The British opened a heavy attack on the Boers when suddenly a party of about forty Boers came within a hundred yards of them. The Boers advised the British to surrender but they refused to comply. During the height of the battle a number of the men were killed or wounded; Leake rescued Sgt. W.H. Waller, one of the injured, under heavy fire. The Boers were determined to prevent assistance being given to the wounded, but Leake lying flat on the ground bandaged Waller and dragged him under cover. The Boers continued to fire and Leake then went to the aid of a mortally wounded officer, Lt. D.O.P. Abrahams and in trying to make him comfortable he was himself shot three times in the left arm and right leg. But this did not stop him administering to the wounded until loss of blood made him too exhausted to carry on. All the men in the action were wounded and Leake refused to take water himself until he was sure that all others had been given some. He was invalided home with his wounds.
There was originally some disagreement about which medal Leake should be awarded. A board of officers met to discuss the merits of him receiving the VC or DSO and took evidence from several witnesses including Sgt. W.H. Waller who had been with Lt. Abrahams when he was shot in the leg. One officer said that Leake was ‘only doing his duty’ and therefore the most that he should receive was
a DSO. The commander in chief in South Africa, Gen. Kitchener, also expressed this view and wrote the following letter to the Under Secretary of War from his Army Headquarters in Pretoria on 24 March 1902.
I have the honour to forward herewith a recommendation for the Victoria Cross in the case of Surgeon Captain Leake, South African Constabulary. I am of the opinion, though the Officer in question undoubtedly showed great devotion to duty, he at the same time was only carrying out his manifest duty, and I therefore consider that the bestowal of the DSO would be more appropriate than the VC, and I therefore recommend him for the former.
Field Marshal Roberts (who had been commander in chief, South Africa from December 1899 to December 1900) also submitted the case for the DSO to the War Office in a letter dated 23 April. Sir R. Buller (the former commander in chief, South Africa) thought it a clear case for the VC. In 1881, twenty-one years before, the regulations for the VC had been slightly amended so that the award could be conferred in cases of marked gallantry in the performance of duty.
Trooper Grindley gave evidence saying, ‘The Boers who were there expressed great regret that they had shot Captain Leake and stated that he had rushed forward; he had previously dressed Sgt. Waller under heavy fire, and had gone to Lt. Abrahams to attend him.’
Finally, the case was made out for both points of view and submitted to King Edward VII on 4 May 1902 to make up his mind on the issue. He came down on the side of the VC, which was duly gazetted nine days later and presented to Leake on 2 June. Leake had used the period of convalescence for further medical study and as a result was admitted as Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons (FRCS) in June 1903. A few months later he left for India and took up the position of administrative medical officer of the Bengal-Nagpur Railway. In the railway’s well-equipped hospital Leake was able to practise and improve his surgical skills. He was also the medical officer to the two battalions of volunteers who staffed the railway. Apart from leaves of absence Leake retained his post for thirty-four years.
VCs of the First World War 1914 Page 17
