Early Life and Military Service
Brooker was born in Hendon, a suburb of London, and was educated at Enfield Grammar School. He began working as a clerk for the Asiatic Petroleum Company, and later managed his father's business.
Brooker was a member of the Territorial Force, the volunteer component of the British Army, and a precursor to the Territorial Army. During World War I he served with the Royal Army Medical Corps in Gallipoli, Thessaloniki and Palestine.
Leaving the army as a sergeant in 1919, Brooker married Lydia Wilson in London, and in 1921 was tempted by the offer of free passage to Australia. Brooker, his wife and their baby arrived in Melbourne on 31 August 1921, and moved to Tasmania where he worked as a farm labourer, then as a pipe-fitter at the Cadbury's Chocolate Factory in Claremont.
Read more about this topic: Edward Brooker
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