Herbert Molyneux was born in Brooke, his birth being registered in Oakham in early1885. His father John worked in farming and also served as the parish clerk for the village. By the time Herbert was 16 years old he was working on the land and the family were living on Pudding Lane (which is now called Church Lane). As they grew up his brothers found work nearby. Thomas became a servant, just along the road at America Lodge, and David a grocer's assistant in Oakham. But Herbert left the village and by the summer of 1908, aged 23 years old, he was in Mansfield and married to 19 year old Sarah Ann Renshaw from the mining community of Blackwell, Derbyshire. Herbert was most likely working as a miner himself. After their marriage they lived in Newton Green, near Blackwell and had three children, Clara, Herbert Junior and Rita. Herbert enlisted at Mansfield in May 1915 and served with "A" Battery 74th Brigade Royal Field Artillery. He was killed in action near Elverdinghe, Belgium on 22 July 1917. He is buried at Canada Farm Cemetery, grave I.F.10 and remembered on the war memorial in Brooke Church. Herbert's parents, John who died in 1912 aged 66, and Elizabeth who died in 1927 aged 80, are both buried in Brooke churchyard.

With thanks to Ann Grimmer, granddaughter of William Palmer, who has researched the history of all those who fell from Brooke.