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[Page 5]
[Transcriber's notes:
This diary appears to have been written retrospectively, not always in narrative order. In summary:
Sailed from Adelaide on transport Port Melbourne on 23 October 1916, travelling via Fremantle & Perth, then Durban, Capetown and Freetown, Sierra Leone (pp 2-20).
Praise for Miss [Ethel] Campbell, who made a practice of welcoming Australian troop ships and cheering them on their way again (pp 11 and 85-86).
Arrived in Plymouth, England, on 28 December 1916 (p21).
Travelled by train to Codford Camp, Salisbury Plain where he was in training until 5 August 1917 (pp 22-38), including a 2-week musketry school at Tidford (26 February 1917 – pp 29-31) and a route march to Bulford (near Amesbury) for a review by the King in which, he writes, 70,000 Australians took part (17 April 1917 – pp 32-33).
Provides verses of a comic song about Codford Camp on pp 20-25 and describes furloughs in London 8-11 January 1917 (pp 25-28) and 28 June 1917 (pp 35-37), listing the places he visited and commenting on "the tubes", "the ceaseless traffic" as well as the helpfulness of the "London policeman" (pp 35-36).
Became ill while on leave in London (29 June 1917) and was hospitalised at Millbank Hospital until 9 July 1917 (pp 36-37).
Describes a German air raid on London on 7 July 1917 (page 37).
Left Codford and sailed From Folkestone to Boulogne on 5 August 1917 (pp 38-39), then going by train to Harfleur and on to base camp near Le Havre.
Left base camp on 22 August 1917, travelling by train for Rouen, then Etaples and Bailleul, Hazebrouck and on to Lugy then Ypres (pp 41-52).
Pages 52 to 81 describe a pattern of rest camp, front line, support lines, moving to and from various locations, in the mud and slush of the trenches and the noise and danger of German bombardment.
Brooks was badly wounded in the leg and arm between Daours and Villers-Bretonneux on 24 April 1918 (page 81) and his leg was amputated at a Casualty Clearing Station. He spent 12 days in hospital in Rouen and was then transferred to St Thomas's Hospital, London.
He then spent time in a convalescent hospital before travelling back to Australia on the Arawa.
The Arawa sailed on 17 September 1918 via Capetown and Durban. Brooks reports that the influenza epidemic had been severe in both Capetown and Durban, and no one was allowed ashore.
News of the Armistice received on 11 November 1918 (p 86).
Arrived Melbourne on 18 November 1918 and travelled by special train to Adelaide (pp 86-87.
An account of my travels abroad
Left Adelaide 23rd October 1916
Returned 19th November 1918
J. Brooks.
163 Gilles St
Adelaide
(50th Battalion A.I.F)