John Gilbert Somerset Cozens-Brooke was already a soldier on the outbreak of war, having taken a commission as a 2nd Lieutenant in the 3rd Battalion of the Royal Scots Fusiliers in April 1912. He spent only 2 ┬¢years at Westminster in Rigaud’s House before leaving, aged only 16. Perhaps it was always his family’s intention that he should join the army – following in the footsteps of his maternal grandfather. Shortly after the outbreak of war he was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant and attached to the 1st Battalion. The 1st Battalion mobilised for war on 14th August and landed at Havre. They were then involved in a series of battles along the Western Front, including the Battle of Le Cateau, the Battle of the Marne and the Battle of Aisne. It was during the Battles of La Bassee and Messines, the finally most northerly phase of the Race to the Sea, that Brooke lost his life. Brooke was conducting reconnaissance work close to Lille when he was killed on 18th October. By the end of the day the line of the Western Front was complete with neither force able to out flank the other. From that point onward only frontal attacks were possible.