Post by Diarist on Sept 14, 2014 15:06:43 GMT 1
Background and early life
Alan Brooke was born in 1883 at Bagnères-de-Bigorre, Hautes-Pyrénées, to a prominent Anglo-Irish family from West Ulster with a long military tradition. He is the seventh and youngest child of Sir Victor Brooke, 3rd Baronet, of Colebrooke, Brookeborough, County Fermanagh, Ireland, and the former Alice Bellingham, second daughter of Sir Alan Bellingham, 3rd Baronet, of Castle Bellingham in County Louth. Brooke was educated in Pau, France, where he lived until the age of 16. Thanks to his upbringing in the country he became a fluent French speaker.
After graduation from the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich Brooke was, on 24 December 1902, commissioned into the Royal Regiment of Artillery as a Second Lieutenant. During the GreatWar he served with the Royal Artillery in France where he got a reputation as an outstanding planner of operations. At the Battle of the Somme in 1916 he introduced the French "creeping barrage" system, thereby helping the protection of the advancing infantry from enemy machine gun fire. Brooke was with the Canadian Corps from early 1917 and planned the barrages for the Battle of Vimy Ridge having at his disposal the Corps artillery and that loaned from the British First Army. In 1918 was appointed GSO1 as the senior artillery commander in the First Army. Brooke ended the conflict as a Lieutenant-Colonel with two DSOs.
After the war he was a lecturer at the Staff College, Camberley and the Imperial Defence College.
In April 1935 he was transferred to TRADOC.
Source: Wikipedia - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Brooke,_1st_Viscount_Alanbrooke
Alan Brooke was born in 1883 at Bagnères-de-Bigorre, Hautes-Pyrénées, to a prominent Anglo-Irish family from West Ulster with a long military tradition. He is the seventh and youngest child of Sir Victor Brooke, 3rd Baronet, of Colebrooke, Brookeborough, County Fermanagh, Ireland, and the former Alice Bellingham, second daughter of Sir Alan Bellingham, 3rd Baronet, of Castle Bellingham in County Louth. Brooke was educated in Pau, France, where he lived until the age of 16. Thanks to his upbringing in the country he became a fluent French speaker.
After graduation from the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich Brooke was, on 24 December 1902, commissioned into the Royal Regiment of Artillery as a Second Lieutenant. During the GreatWar he served with the Royal Artillery in France where he got a reputation as an outstanding planner of operations. At the Battle of the Somme in 1916 he introduced the French "creeping barrage" system, thereby helping the protection of the advancing infantry from enemy machine gun fire. Brooke was with the Canadian Corps from early 1917 and planned the barrages for the Battle of Vimy Ridge having at his disposal the Corps artillery and that loaned from the British First Army. In 1918 was appointed GSO1 as the senior artillery commander in the First Army. Brooke ended the conflict as a Lieutenant-Colonel with two DSOs.
After the war he was a lecturer at the Staff College, Camberley and the Imperial Defence College.
In April 1935 he was transferred to TRADOC.
Source: Wikipedia - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Brooke,_1st_Viscount_Alanbrooke