Colin Brooks - A Eulogy
Colin Brooks was born in Bognor Regis on the 3rd December 1925 to Gladys and Herbert Brooks. He had an elder brother called Peter and while he was quite young the family moved to Streatham in London.
Colin’s father served in the Royal Navy and as he was away for perhaps a year at a time he was raised mainly by his mother. We understand that he could be a bit of a rascal when he was young and we heard that his mother would frequently tie him to the leg of the dining room table! At aged 9 he won a scholarship to St Olaves in North London where he stayed or 2 years. With the advent of war the school moved to Kent, but Colin stayed in London with his mother.
When Colin left school at age 15 he joined the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich, where he completed a four year apprenticeship in precision toolmaking. (18 November 1940 till 10 June 1944).
Just as the second war was coming to an end Colin joined the Royal Air Force where he trained as a pilot and went on to fly DC3 Dakota transport aircraft. He was posted to Egypt and his mother was immensely proud of the photograph always displayed prominently in her house of Colin standing in front of the aircraft in which he had flown “Monty” - Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery, 1st Viscount Montgomery of Alamein.
We understand that at that time a certain amount of cigarette smuggling was common amongst the transport crews of the RAF and Colin often lamented the fate of hidden cigarette caches in the desert to which he was never able to return. It was in Egypt that Colin met Enice Sutton who was a very attractive young driver in the ATS (Auxiliary Territorial Service - the women’s branch of the British army). Love blossomed and Colin and Enice subsequently returned home on the same troop ship in January 1948 and were married in Rugby, Warwickshire, a month later on the 16th February 1948.
Colin and Enice lived in Bognor Regis and Colin remained in the Royal Air Force for another 18 months before he was finally demobbed. However, Colin was soon back in uniform because he then joined the Sussex Constabulary and served as a Police Constable (“Beat Bobby”) in Crawley.
In 1956 what became commonly known as the “Cyprus Emergency” was in full swing and led to the formation of the British Police Unit. This consisted of 300 volunteers from Police forces in the United kingdom. These were officers of high calibre with at least 2 or 3 years experience of practical police work. Colin was one of the first of these volunteers and was soon transferred to the British Police Unit in Cyprus. These officers were posted in charge of rural police stations and Colin excelled in his new role. He was quickly promoted to sergeant and then to Inspector and he built up an excellent relationship with both the Greek and Turkish communities. Enice and the 3 children had remained in Crawley but by 1958 the situation in Cyprus had become more settled so they then flew out to join Colin in Limassol.
There is ample evidence that Colin was a fair and highly respected officer. There can’t be many police officers who have had a grenade thrown at them and later received an apology from the attacker when he became aware of the identity of the police officer he had attacked. Colin also proved to be a brave and very courageous officer. The Cypriot papers made much of the fact that during a large street demonstration orchestrated by Greek students from the local university Colin calmly approached the leader of the procession, took hold of the flag he was carrying, folded it and handed it back to the student with the suggestion that they returned to the university. The crowd consequently dispersed and peace and good order on the streets was soon restored.
The family remained in Cyprus until it was granted independence in 1960 and the British Police Unit was disbanded.
Colin returned to life as a “Beat Bobby” in the Sussex Constabulary and initially served in Bognor Regis. Life in the Police force must have been so different in those days because Colin fondly talked about how when on night shift he would borrow the Butcher’s delivery bike and cycle to the pier where he would meet up with other Beat Bobbies and hold a “jamming” session in the theatre at the end of the pier. There were also stories of calling in at the local nurses home on a cold night for a cup of tea and a biscuit. The family later moved to Crawley and then to Littlehampton. After years in uniform Colin transferred to plain clothes work and spent some time as a Scenes of Crime Officer - the training for this new role inevitably resulted in most of the door handles in the house being covered in dusting powder as Colin perfected his fingerprint gathering skills. Once again Colin progressed through the ranks to Sergeant and after a spell at the Bramshill Police College he was promoted to Inspector.
By 1970 the last of the children had left home so Colin and Enice bought their own house and settled in Rustington West Sussex which was Colin’s home for the rest of his life.
During the last few years of his police career Colin worked in Worthing County Court. This was during the period when a police officer led the prosecution in the Courts - a job which is now undertaken by highly paid barristers. This was a role that Colin relished and he proved to be a very capable prosecutor - woe betide any erring motorist trying to justify a transgression of the laws because what Colin didn’t know about the Highway code really wasn't worth knowing.
Colin retired from the Police Force when he was 55. For many years he led a very active retirement. Colin & Enice bought a caravan and during the winter months toured around France, Spain & Portugal - often going away for 3 to 4 months at a time.
Colin loved model making, making boats and painting figures. On one occasion he made a slalom canoe. At that time the house had no garage so he decided that the canoe had to be built inside the house. We don’t know if when he started construction he had appreciated the size of the canoe. He certainly started to look a bit concerned when the hull of the canoe grew larger than the size of the second bedroom and extended across the landing. Nobody was quite brave enough to ask how he intended to actually get it out of the house when it was finished.
Colin enjoyed sea fishing and for a while he and several other police officers shared a fishing boat that had been abandoned after being washed ashore. They sometimes went for a drink after a successful fishing trip and I believe that Enice still has a newspaper cutting about a large Tope (Shark) that was found in the fish pool of a local hotel. Colin would never reveal what happened to the Tope he had caught in the sea off Littlehampton that same day!
Colin was a practical man. He was a talented artist and enjoyed his daily crossword puzzles at which he was very skilful. He was extremely competitive even when it came to playing simple games with the grandchildren and it wasn’t unusual to suddenly discover rules being “tweaked” in his favour to facilitate a win!
We would all probably agree that Colin was a strong character with a definite sense of right and wrong. He was a brave principled man who knew his own mind and wasn’t afraid to let anybody know it. He was a real gentleman and a much loved husband to Enice - the one true love of his life.