Charles was born on Gibraltar, where his father was serving in the Royal Artillery and he joined the army as a boy soldier in 1915. He met my grandmother Emily when he was serving in Cork Ireland. They married in 1923 and the army moved them both to Portsmouth as was normal army practice.

They moved to Malta in the 1930s where my father Ron Brooks was born in 1935. Soon after, Charles, Emily, Ron and eldest brother Geoffrey were moved to serve in Hong Kong.

Shortly before 1941 and the Japanese invasion, Emily, Geoff and Ron were evacuated via the Phillipines and Singapore to Australia.

After the Battle for Hong Kong and the surrender Charles blew up many of the big guns in order to prevent the Japanese having the advantage of them. Like so many, Charles was now a POW. By this time, Charles was a Master Gunner in the Royal Artillery. He was a very experienced soldier and was due to be promoted to officer rank.

Charles sadly died with many of his comrades in the Royal Artillery hold, battened down, impossible to escape where many had been trying to save lives by pumping out the rising water.

I will never know but maybe he was one of those who were heard singing so loudly "It's a Long Way to Tipperary", the stuff of legends.