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All Hands 2020-1 (UK Spring) P a g e 40

11 Obituaries

11.1 Captain Claude Henry Brook (BrookC47) – via David Montgomery (MontgomeryD63)
Age 90 of Wolfville, passed away Wednesday, December 18, 2019 in Valley
Regional Hospital, Kentville, surrounded by loving members of his family.
Born on June 9, 1929 in Fullerton, Wherwell, England, he was the son of the
late John Stacey and Mabel Laura (Foot) Brook. His early years were spent in
a farming community in Berkshire, England. After finishing school, he went to
naval college and sailed in the Merchant Marine. Claude married his beloved
wife, Christina Joyce on December 22, 1951 and emigrated to Canada in June
1957, landing in Quebec City, Quebec. He worked on the Great Lakes until
December 1960 and then moved his family to Saint John, NB to serve as an
officer on a dredger working in the harbour there.
In December 1961 he moved to Dartmouth and joined the Royal Canadian Navy
becoming a commissioned officer in 1964. Transferred to the Cornwallis Naval
Training Centre in 1966, he bought a farm in Bear River, returning to his
farming roots.

He resigned from the Navy in 1969 and joined the Fundy Gypsum Company sailing the gypsum ships out of
Hantsport. Claude ended his working life as a member of the Atlantic Pilotage Authority first at Port Hawkesbury
then in Sydney and retiring from his position in 1990 while living in Maces Bay near Saint John, NB.
He move back to Hantsport and then finally to Wolfville where he spent many happy years working in his gardens
and travelling the world with his wife, Joy.
Claude is survived by children, Jennifer, Sarah, Roger, Melanie and Wendy; 13 grandchildren and 20 great-
grandchildren. He will be greatly missed by them all.

11.2 Anthony De Vere (DeVereA47) – via David Montgomery (MontgomeryD63)
It is with deep regret that the Australia Branch notes that Tony De Vere “crossed the bar” on 18th January 2020.
Tony was one of the first to join the new Warsash Association Australia Branch in 2009 and was a great supporter
of the Branch’s activities particularly in Queensland.
Born in Bangalore, India in 1929 where his father was based with the British Army the family returned to England
when Tony was two and were then based in Lydd, Kent. Here Tony’s great love of the sea grew, repairing old
bicycles for sale to fund his boat building activities and his adventures sailing the waters surrounding Lydd. During
the 2nd World War the family moved to Bournemouth where they narrowly missed being bombed, it was thought
to be safer than Lydd.