WILSON, Alan Brook (1895-1917).JPG)
Alan Brook Wilson
Prep. Form Dux, 1905.
Alan Brook Wilson was born in Geelong on 22 July 1895, the son of Donald Patrick Classon Wilson and Wilhelmina Darlington nee Anderson, of Springvale, Nareen. He was first enrolled at the School in 1904 but appears to have left before again being enrolled in 1907 to 1910 as a day student. His enrolment address was given as Fairview St, Newtown. He was a hard worker at school being Dux of his class in 1905 and 1908, and was managing his father’s property at the age of nineteen.
He is listed as winning the following prizes in the
Annual Report prize lists:
1905 Dux of Preparatory Form
1905 2nd, English, Junior College Preparatory Form
1905 2nd, History, Junior College Preparatory Form
1905 2nd, Geography, Junior College Preparatory Form
1905 2nd, Scripture, Junior College Preparatory Form
1907 1st, English, Junior College 3rd Form
1907 2nd, Geography, Junior College 3rd Form
1908 Dux of Lower 4th Form
1908 1st, English, Lower 4th Form
1908 1st, Geography, Lower 4th Form
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A B Wilson (War Service).
During World War I, he enlisted (No 1922) at Melbourne on 5 July 1915, and trained at Seymour and Geelong until his embarkation on
HMAT A64 Demosthenes on 29 December 1915, arriving at Suez on 31 January 1916. After four months’ service in Egypt he embarked from Alexandria on the Huntspill, landing at Marseilles on 14 June 1916. He was wounded in action at Pozieres on 17 February 1917, and evacuated to St John’s Hospital, Hastings, on 23 March 1917, suffering gunshot wounds to the arm and leg. Before leaving England to return to his unit, he wrote light-heartedly to friends in Australia:
‘I am just on the second half of my return trip to Blighty. Fritz punched the first half with a shell, and the doctor punched the second with a hypodermic syringe.’ He returned to his unit with 46 Battalion, but was killed on 1 October 1917 at Wytschaete, with twenty other men of his battalion. Only one of these has a known grave, the remainder, including Brook Wilson, are commemorated on The Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial, Belgium.
Private H O’Keefe gave information to the Red Cross Information Bureau of the circumstances of his death:
‘I did not see the actual casualty, but I saw him soon after. He was caught by a nose cap from a shell, which went clean through him. He called for the Stretcher Bearers, but he died before they could get to him. Casualty was at Ypres. I knew him very well, he came from Geelong, Victoria, and had been wounded in the Battle of Pozieres. I did not see his grave, but I feel sure he was buried at Ypres. Refer to Chaplain Major Devine, 46th Bn, C Company, who is now in France. He buried him and can give full details.’ Alan Brook Wilson's diary is held in the Collection of the Geelong Heritage Centre.
Brook Wilson’s cousin, Lt Bruce Anderson, 58 Battalion, was awarded the Military Cross at Bullecourt, and was Mentioned in Despatches when acting as Battalion Intelligence Officer at Fromelles, and later on the Somme.
His brother, Kenneth Andrew Wilson (1899-1983), was also educated at Geelong College.
Sources: 'Geelong Collegians at the Great War' compiled by J. Affleck. pp121-123 (citing Ken Fitzgerald, The Coleraine Cenotaph: A Brief Biographical Record of the 103 First and Second World War Service Personnel Commemorated (2001); Photo Pegasus December 1917.); Geelong Advertiser 6 August 2016.