Lieutenant Charles Gordon BRODIE
B Company, 1/5th (City of London) Battalion (London Rifle Brigade) and 6 Squadron Royal Flying Corps

Date of birth: 13th July 1896
Date of death: 23rd May 1917

Killed in action aged 20
Buried at Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery Plot X Row A Grave 35
Charles Gordon Brodie was born at "Rosslyn", Haslemere Road, Crouch End, Hornsey in Middlesex on the 13th of July 1896 the son of Charles Tomlinson Brodie, a tea and coffee wholesaler, and Anna Maria (nee Geere) Brodie later of 108 Fordwych Road, West Hampstead in London. He was baptised at Christ Church Hornsey on the 3rd of September 1896.

He was educated at Lancing College where he was in Heads House from January 1910 to the 29th of July 1914 where he served as an Acting Corporal in the Officer Training Corps. On leaving school he worked as a clerk.

Following the outbreak of war he applied for a commission in the 2/5th (City of London) Battalion (London Rifle Brigade) on the 11th of January 1915 in an application which was supported by the Reverend Bowlby, Headmaster of Lancing College. He underwent a medical examination where it was recorded that he was five feet ten inches tall. He was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the 3/5th (City of London) Battalion (London Rifle Brigade) on the 28th of January 1915. He embarked for France on the 18th of July 1915 where he joined the 1/5th Battalion in the field in camp at St Omer on the 25th of July 1915. He was posted to B Company on the 6th of September 1915.

On the 9th of September his Commanding Officer wrote to the Adjutant General at General Headquarters: -

"2nd Lieut. Brodie C.G. - This officer joined my battalion on 25.7.15 from my 2nd line unit. He had now been through the regimental courses A) machine gun B) musketry. The reports I have received from the officers holding these courses, in each case qualified instructors, are such that I do not think there is any chance of the above named officer being fitting to instruct a platoon or command it in the field. In view of the Military Secretary's minute 5552 of 21st August in a previous case I beg to take this, the earliest opportunity of reporting above opinion and asking you to send him back to my 3rd line unit for further instruction. I have shown this letter to 2nd Lt Brodie"

Charles Brodie left the battalion to return to England on the 15th of September 1915.

On the 21st of August 1916 he was sent for flight training at No.1 School of Military Aeronautics and was posted to 26 Reserve Squadron and 18 Reserve Squadron. On the 26th of October 1916 he was appointed as a Flying Officer and seconded for service to the Royal Flying Corps before being joining 6 Squadron at the front on the 1st of November 1916 as an Observer. He was promoted to Acting Lieutenant on the 1st of February 1917 a rank which was confirmed on 11th of March 1917 and was antedated to the 1st of June 1916.

On the morning of the 23rd of May 1917 he took off in RE8 A4198 for an artillery observation patrol with his pilot Lieutenant Alexander Ian McKimmie. While flying at 6,000 feet in the Ypres area, they collided with another RE8 (registration A4594), also of No. 6 Squadron, flown by Captain Walter Llewellyn Clark with 2nd Lieutenant Harry Stanley Diment as his Observer. Both aircraft crashed killing all four men.

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