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Compiled by Roger Johnson
The following is taken from The Illustrated London News dated 15th April 1893, page 454:
Taken from Lean's Navy List October 1892, page 419: Brooke AT, Lieutenant awarded Gold Medal for, when in charge of a boat's crew of HMS "Lapwing", saving the lives of the Master and ten men of the crew of the Dutch barque "Gross Furstin Catharina", wrecked on the Eastern Beach, Gibraltar; also Lloyd's Silver Medal for saving life - May 1862. Acknowledgements: Betsey Trotwood - Exeter Reference Library |
The unexpected death, on April 7, of Captain Arthur Brooke, C.B., flag-captain to the Duke of Edinburgh as Naval Commander-in-Chief at Devonport, was a sad incident on the eve of the visit of the Prince of Wales to his Royal Highness, and must have been felt by all the officers of the staff at that port. Captain Brooke, who was born in 1838, and entered the Navy as a cadet in 1852, served in the West Indies, and afterwards in the China War; as a lieutenant of the Sybille, took part in boat activities and the capture of Canton; and was successful in saving the crew of a wrecked vessel near Gibraltar, for which service he received the gold medal of the Shipwrecked Mariners' Society. While in the Mullet, on the West Coast of Africa, he captured and destroyed a slaver. He was specially commended by Commander-in-Chief and the Admiralty for his exertions in suppressing the slave trade while commander of the Vulture in 1874. As captain of the Opal he commanded an expedition up the river Niger, and succeeded in amicably settling matters with King Obo. Captain Brooke became C.B. in 1887, the Jubilee year of the Queen.