234240 Spr. John William "Brookie" Brooke British Army Royal Engineers from:157 Southcotes Avenue, Hull, East Yorkshire My uncle, John Brooke, served at the Battle of Monte Cassino. He told me had witnessed a German White Flag shown and that this was taken down when the Germans realised that there was a Polish contingent opposite them. He told me that they had R and R in Rimini in Italy where they drank everything from "aftershave to hair oil".
My uncle John was a plumber in Hull, apprenticed to Luther Beal and later worked for the Bradford Property Trust at the Reckitt and Sons Garden Village Estate in Hull. He was a member of Sutton Park Golf Club in Hull.
He was a keen angler - trout, coarse and sea angling. He fished for Hull in the Nationals and his team of four were all plumbers from Hull. He won the Yorkshire Telegraph Angling Cup and I still have the Trophy. My uncle John was a great man, a real gentleman, who taught me as a kid to fish, to play snooker and bought me my first motorcycle, a Royal Enfield Clipper when I was 17. He used to ride a New Imperial motorcycle during the war. He was a lovely man who taught me a lot. I miss him dearly and will never forget him.
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