“FIGHTING HOLBROOKS.”

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIII, Issue 10, 9 December 1932, Page 8

“FIGHTING HOLBROOKS.”

UNIQUE FAMILY GATHERING. To the number of 21, the family of the “Fighting Holbrooks,” came together for the first time in 20 years when they attended the dinner of the Hampshire Society. Colonel Sir Arthur Holbrook, a volunteer officer and now a newspaper proprietor, has six sons and four daughters. They all came with wives and husbands. Two of the sons are Rear-Admiral Leonard Holbrook, who was in command of the Australian Fleet for a time, and Commander Norman Holbrook, V.C., who won the medal for diving under Turkish mines in a submarine in the Dardanelles and torpedoing a Turkish battleship. Sir Arthur Holbrook began soldiering at the age of 10 as a drummer in the Hampshire Volunteers, with which he served for 44 years. He says he wanted Leonard to be a lawyer—“he was always an argumentative cuss”— and he feared to put him in the Navy, because it let a man retire at the age of 40 with a pension of £4OO. “But Leonard did better than that, and I am proud that he commanded the Australian Squadron,” said Sir Arthur.

The fifth son, Alec, no.v a major, was promoted from lieutenant to captain for the defence of a sevenmile front on the Suez Canal. The youngest, Worsley, parachuted from a war balloon which had been shot down in flames. Among the guests was another Hampshire man, Field-Marshal Lord Allenby