Bertram Sergison-Brooke

Lieutenant General Sir Bertram Norman Sergison-Brooke, KCB, KCVO, CMG, DSO (born Brooke; 20 July 1880 – 26 March 1967) was an Anglo-Irish senior British Army officer who served as Major-General commanding the Brigade of Guards and General Officer Commanding (GOC) London District.[4]

Sir Bertram Sergison-Brooke
Sergison-Brooke (right) with Churchill in London, January 1941.
Birth nameBertram Norman Brooke
Nickname(s)"Bertie"[1]
Born20 July 1880
St George Hanover Square, London
Died26 March 1967 (aged 86)
Brackley, Northamptonshire, England
Buried
Lower Swell, Gloucestershire, England[2]
AllegianceUnited Kingdom
Service/branchBritish Army
Years of service1899–1942
RankLieutenant General
Service number12773
UnitGrenadier Guards
Commands heldLondon District
1st (Guards) Brigade
15th Infantry Brigade
Grenadier Guards
1st Battalion, Grenadier Guards
2nd Guards Brigade
Battles/warsSecond Boer War
First World War
Second World War
AwardsKnight Commander of the Order of the Bath
Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order
Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George
Distinguished Service Order
Mentioned in Despatches
Order of the Crown (Belgium)
Legion of Honour (France)
Mentioned in dispatches (7)[3]
RelationsAlan Brooke, 1st Viscount Alanbrooke (cousin)

Early life and education

Brooke was born in London, the fourth son of Arthur Basil Brooke and Alice Georgina Norton. He was a grandson of Sir Arthur Brooke, 2nd Baronet and a cousin of Alan Brooke, 1st Viscount Alanbrooke. The Brookes were a prominent Anglo-Irish family that had been settled in Northern Ireland since prior to the Plantation of Ulster. He was educated at Eton College and passed out of the Royal Military College, Sandhurst in 1899.[5][3]

Military career

Brooke was commissioned into the Grenadier Guards as a second lieutenant on 12 August 1899.[6] He served in the Second Boer War in South Africa, and was promoted to lieutenant on 14 December 1900.[7] Following the end of the war in June 1902 he returned with most of the men of the guards regiments on board the SS Lake Michigan, which arrived in Southampton in October 1902.[8] He then served with the Egyptian Army.[6]

He also served in the First World War, initially as Assistant Embarkation Officer in Southampton and then as a brigade major in France.[6] By 1917 he was commanding 2nd Guards Brigade but was gassed on the Western Front.[9] He was mentioned in dispatches seven times throughout the war.[3]

After the war he became Commanding Officer of the 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards and then, in 1923, went on to be Commander of the Grenadier Guards and Regimental District.[6] He was appointed Commander of 15th Infantry Brigade in China in 1927 and then Commander of the 1st (Guards) Brigade at Aldershot in 1928.[6] He was made Brigadier on the General Staff at Eastern Command in India in 1931 and Major-General commanding the Brigade of Guards and General Officer Commanding London District in 1934.[6] He retired in 1939 but, with the Second World War underway, he was recalled as General Officer Commanding (GOC) London District.[6] He retired again in 1942.[6][10]

He was British Red Cross Commissioner with the Allied Army of Liberation from 1943 to 1945.[6][1]

Personal life

In 1915, he married Prudence Ida Evelyn Sergison, daughter and co-heiress of Charles Warden Sergison of Cuckfield Park, and assumed her surname by royal licence.[3] They had one daughter, Patience Ann (born 1916), who married Sir Edward Henry Windley.[11]

After Prudence's death in 1918, he married secondly Hilda Fenwick, in 1923. They had one son, Timothy Mark, who married Hon. Mary Anne Hare, daughter of John Hare, 1st Viscount Blakenham.[11] His second wife died in 1954.[4]

His home was in Slaugham in West Sussex.[12]

References
  1. Smart 2005, p. 45.
  2. "FamilySearch.org". ancestors.familysearch.org.
  3. Smart 2005, p. 44.
  4. "Obituary: Gen. Sergison-Brooke". The Times. 28 March 1967. p. 10.
  5. Debrett's Peerage, Baronetage, Knightage, and Companionage. Kelly's Directories. 1916. p. 92. Retrieved 30 May 2019.
  6. Sir Bertram Norman Sergison-Brooke Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives
  7. Hart's Army list, 1903
  8. "The Army in South Africa – Troops returning home". The Times. No. 36876. London. 18 September 1902. p. 5.
  9. "Centre for War Studies". University of Birmingham. Retrieved 11 June 2019.
  10. Smart 2005, p. 44−45.
  11. Mosley, Charles, ed. (2003). Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knighthood (107 ed.). Burke's Peerage & Gentry. p. 526. ISBN 0-9711966-2-1.
  12. 'Parishes: Slaugham', A History of the County of Sussex: Volume 7: The rape of Lewes (1940), pp. 181–186 Date accessed: 14 June 2010

Bibliography
  • Davies, Frank (1997). Bloody Red Tabs: General Officer Casualties of the Great War 1914–1918. London: Pen & Sword Books. ISBN 9781783462377.

Further reading
  • Smart, Nick (2005). Biographical Dictionary of British Generals of the Second World War. Barnesley: Pen & Sword. ISBN 1844150496.
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