Biography
Brookes was born in Melbourne, to a father, William Brookes, who had become rich from gold mining in the Bendigo area. He received a private education at Melbourne Grammar School. On leaving school, he went to work as a clerk at the paper mill where his father was managing director, and was on the board himself within eight years.
Brookes married 20-year-old Mabel Balcombe Emmerton, the daughter of Harry Emmerton, a solicitor, on 19 April 1911 at St Paul's Cathedral in Melbourne. They had three daughters.
During World War I he served as commissioner of the Australian branch of the British Red Cross in Egypt.
He died in South Yarra in 1968.
Read more about this topic: Norman Brookes
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