Edmund Drake-Brockman

Born in Busselton, Western Australia, Drake-Brockman was the son of surveyor Frederick Slade Drake-Brockman and heroine Grace Vernon Bussell and brother of Deborah Vernon Hackett. He was a 1902 graduate of the Guildford Grammar School. Interested in the military, he joined the Citizen Military Forces as a volunteer in 1903. He combined this with a career in law, becoming a barrister and solicitor in 1909, practicing in Perth.

Following the outbreak of the First World War, he volunteered for overseas service and served in the Gallipoli Campaign as a major while assigned to the 11th Battalion. He was made a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG) for his services at Gallipoli.[1] Later in the war, he was promoted to lieutenant colonel and commanded another Western Australian infantry battalion, the 16th, serving on the Western Front. In 1918, he was promoted to brigadier general and commanded the 4th Brigade.[2]

After the war he was elected to the Australian Senate in 1919 as a Nationalist Party of Australia representative, Drake-Brockman served in the Senate until 1926. He then worked as federal judge.

Still in the Citizen Military Forces, he was called up for duty during the Second World War, and commanded the 3rd Division, a militia formation, until 1942.[2] He died on 1 June 1949, and was survived the three children he had by his wife, Constance, whom he had married in April 1912.[3]

Citations

Bibliography

• Gill, Ian (2004). Fremantle to France: 11th Battalion A.I.F. 1914–1919 (2nd ed.). Myaree, Western Australia: Advance Press. ISBN 0-9750588-0-0.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Mallett, Ross, Major General Edmund Drake-Brockman, General Officers of the First AIF, adfa.edu.au
• Sharp, Ian G. (1981) 'Drake-Brockman, Edmund Alfred (1884–1949)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 8, (MUP)
• Obituary, Obituaries Australia, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University