Oliver Brooks

He led the bombers forward and won their lost trenches back.

Oliver Brooks was born at Paulton, Somerset, on 31 May 1889. He worked at Norton Hill Colliery before joining the Coldstream Guards in 1906. A reservist in 1914, he was recalled and went to France in August.

Near Loos on 8 October 1915, German troops captured part of the British trench system. Brooks gathered a party of bombers and led a counterattack through intense grenade fire, recovering the lost ground. King George V, injured in a riding accident, presented his Victoria Cross at his bedside on a hospital train in France on 1 November.

Brooks became a bombing instructor, teaching the Prince of Wales among others. Seriously wounded on the Somme in 1916, he served thereafter in Britain and was discharged in 1919. He married Marion Loveday and worked as a hotel commissionaire at Windsor and London. He died at Windsor on 25 October 1940 and was buried in the borough cemetery.

Official Victoria Cross citation

For most conspicuous bravery near Loos, on the 8th October, 1915. A strong party of the enemy having captured 200 yards of our trenches, Lance-Serjeant Brooks, on his own initiative, led a party of bombers in the most determined manner, and succeeded in regaining possession of the lost ground. The signal bravery displayed by this Non-commissioned Officer, in the midst of a hail of bombs from the Germans, was of the very first order, and the complete success attained in a very dangerous undertaking was entirely due to his absolute fearlessness, presence of mind and promptitude.

Second Supplement to The London Gazette of 26 October 1915. 28 October 1915, Numb. 29342, p. 10629