BROOKS AND BROOKE

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2890, 30 September 1916, Page 8

BROOKS AND BROOKE

TWO PLUCKY MEN AT THE ' FRONT .

(By "H.A." in the "Daily Mail.")

Until the last few weeks the official photographers with the British Army on tho Western front were given scanty encouragement and very little opportunity for obtaining pictorial records of tlio fighting. Their recognition by tho authorities was tardy, and many historic battle scenes from Ypres and Loos, and onward, which might havo been recorded to the glory ol' our men at the front and tho satisfaction of their folk at home, missed. The clouded memory of them alone remains. \ Who are these mysterious. persons ( who so. modestly hide tlieir identity under tho phrase "Official Photographer"? On the "Western front there are two of them —bojih young men from Fleet Streetr—Lieutenant Ernest Brooks and Lieutenant Brooke, D.C.M. All along the British battle-line. they are known, and cheerfuly permitted to exist, as "the two bloomin' Brookses." They are always bobbing up in some hot corner, always doing what seem to be desperate things as coolly and as calmly as if they were engaged on snapping interesting trivialities at a Lord Mayors Show or a, procession along the Mall, never in the way of the Big Push, but invariably on the sppt when something warm is moving. Peppered by Shrapnel. ■ They bear charmed lives, these two young gentlemen. Three times recently Brooks has had his camera "peppered" by shrapnel, his "Crusader" helm dented, and plates in his "carrier" cracked and fogged by sliell shock. Several times has Brooke been unoffi-' cially reported "missing," only to return after a day or two with a "scoop" which Brooks has helped him to develop in their little room at "Headquarters"—for there is no jealousy between these two ardent adventurers. One day Brooks returned, after many hours of inferno, to find that ho had taken two pictures on one plate, and he was very angry at his own arrant care-' lessness—the first time that anybody has ever seen Ernest Brooks out of temper with anything or anybody—even himself. He did not explain, as he' might have done, that ho had been so busy giving succour to the wounded that he had forgotten .to . turn the plate. He was angry because he had spoilt one of his few remaining plates. Ho developed the picture out of curio;ity, and it so happened that the double exposure produced .the most realistic mix-up which would have tempted any ordinary photographer to label it "Desperate hand-to-hand encounter at But Brooks, as honest as he is courageous, promptly destroyed it. Lieutenant Brooks is a young man with a cherubic and supremely innocentlooking face, a soft-voice, and a manner to match. IJ,e is known' to his in-' timates as "Baby Brooks," and one would imagine, upon first meeting him, that he had never been anywhere or seen anything out of the ordinary. But his young life has been packed with incident and fierce adventure all over the world. He took all the 'official pictures at the Coronation Durbar; ho went with King George on his'famous tiger-sliying expedition in Nepal, and from an uncomfortable perch iipon a rearing elephant "snapped" o man-eater in'tho very act of springing nprin Ms prey.' The "prey" was Baby Brooks; the was fierce and hungry, but the King of tho Jungle was so_ discomfited by the welcoming smile which wroatlied Mr. Brooks's countenance that he' sprang short, and a bullet rolled- hini over -bev fore he could gat3ier'himself for ai second attempt;" " ......... Historic Callipoli Pictures.. When tho ill-fated Gallipoli Expedition was decided upon, Mr. Brooks accompanied it {is official photographer, and in spito of the extraordinary difficulties in his way, managed to obtain a complete series of pictures of "the show." Spme of his studies of incidents 011 ".V"- Beach are historic, and although most of the moving in disembarking and embarking -was- done in the dark, Ernest Brooks, like Sentimental Tommy, "found a way"; his record of Gallipoli-ds unique. Tho annoying thing about "Baby Brooks" is his supreme modesty. • His mind, must he stored! with gorgeous tales of adyenturo by flood and field, but it is rarely, indeed, that lie will ever talk about them. That is the way with mosthra-yo men. "Baby Brooks," though still cherubic and rosy to look upon, has changed since the days of his tigerstalking experience. ,Ho came home tho other day to see to some repairs to, his damaged camera. He' was.just as simple and childlike as ever,' but his hair was streaked, with' grey. : Lieutenant Brooke, the second of tlieso two invincibles, was.. a. Press Agency photographer when.the war began. He joined King Edivard's Horse as a- private and speedily showed that he was just as good a soldier, as.pliotographor. For' conspicuous bravery in repairing telegraph wires under, heavy firo lio was promoted to the rank of' sergeant and awarded the D.C.M. Brooks and Brooke set out .daily in their motor-cars "looking, for trouble:" They are not "shepherded" like somo of the war correspondents, but are left very inucli to' their own devices.. See-, ing a battle from, a distant hill is of 110 earthly.use to them, even with' a telephoto lens. . Their task is to get within focus; and so they join Tip with the Tommies and tako pot-luck with, them.