Edmund Westbrook

WESTBROOK, Edmund- – – – SPC ?

DoB:- – 1893, Lexton, VIC

Father:- – James Westbrook

Mother: – Catherine (Kate) Margaret, nee Ransome

Edmund Westbrook came to St Patrick’s as a boarder, with his brother Francis -‘Frank’ (SPC 1908-1910). The College could- find no detail in the Annuals as to the specific dates that Edmund attended.

Service No:- 14562

Rank:- – Private, later Driver

Unit:- – 4th Light Horse Field Ambulance

Edmund enlisted on 16 October 1915, a Blacksmith by profession. He was 21 years and ten months old, five feet, eight and one quarter inches tall, with a fair complexion, dark brown eyes and dark hair. He embarked from Melbourne aboard the Malwa on 25 July 1916. He must have been ill on the journey overseas as his war record noted that when the ship arrived at Moascar, Egypt, he was -‘taken on strength ex Isolation’. He was able to march into camp on 24 August 1916.

While on active service in early November 1916, he was found drunk in town (Ismailia) about 9pm, and fined 21 days’ pay. The following month he was reprimanded for neglecting to tidy his tent when warned to do so. He forfeited two days’ pay on that occasion.

He was occasionally ill and was admitted to hospital in Egypt in August 1917 with septic sores, and the following year with tonsillitis. In mid-1919 he embarked from Port Said for leave in England. From England he was returned to Australia aboard the Norman on 18 August 1919.

Edmund settled back into life in Australia and married Charlotte Cecilia Pulling, however the College could not establish the exact date of this marriage. They had one son, Albert James who was born around 1925. It is likely that Charlotte died, because Edmund remarried in 1947 at the age of 54, to Gladys Mary Barker. They had no children.

Edmund worked as a Postal Department Linesman and lived in the Melbourne suburb of Highett. He died on 5 February 1974, aged 80 years, and was buried at Hamilton Cemetery, Victoria.