From the 1850s, when it was opened to relieve the pressure on London burial facilities, to 2016, the cemetery was in private hands. It is now the responsibility of Woking Borough Council.
Within Brookwood is “the largest Commonwealth war cemetery in the United Kingdom” (Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) website). This contains a major RAF section. Other features include 2,400 Canadian graves of the Second World War, with 43 of them those of men who died of wounds following the Dieppe raid in August 1942.
In 2010 John Clarke, an historian of Brookwood, produced a list of 33 Battle of Britain aircrew buried or commemorated in the military cemetery and the main area.
One of the UK contingent was Flight Lieutenant Hugh Beresford of No 257 Squadron. He was killed in action on 7 September 1940 but his Hurricane, with his remains still inside, was not found on the Isle of Sheppey, Kent until as late as 1979.
“Blue Blood” Beresford received a full military burial, with the Queen’s Colour Squadron providing a bearer party.
The word ‘commemorated’ used above is important because, although one of the 33 Battle of Britain aircrew has a headstone at Brookwood, his body does not rest there. The Hurricane of Pilot Officer Jaroslav Sterbacek, a pre-war member of the Czechoslovakian Air Force, was shot down by Messerschmitt Bf 110s on 31 August 1940 as he attacked a Dorner formation over the Thames estuary. It was his first and last day in action with the RAF.
Pilot Officer Sterbacek has never been found and his name appears at Runnymede. At some point somebody has provided a headstone at Brookwood, in the style used by the CWGC for Czechoslovak nationals, as a memorial to him.
It is highly likely that a further man who qualified for the Battle of Britain Clasp is buried at Brookwood though, rightly, his name was not included by John Clarke. Pilot Officer John Benzie was a Canadian former soldier, on an RAF short service commission, who flew Hurricanes with No 242 Squadron. He was reported missing after the squadron had been in action over the Thames estuary on 7 September 1940 and, like Jaroslav Sterbacek, his name was eventually placed on the Runnymede memorial.
However, 36 years after John Benzie’s death, the burnt-out remains of a Hurricane were brought to the surface in a field between Theydon Bois and Loughton in Essex, with human remains also found at the scene. Eye witness evidence places the crash of the Hurricane on 7 September.
With other losses accounted for, it seems beyond doubt that the person found was John Benzie. However, that is an assessment of circumstantial evidence and proved not sufficient for the authorities. If you visit Brookwood Military Cemetery and seek out plot 22, row E, grave 1, you are probably in the presence of one of the Few but you will find that the headstone refers merely to “an unknown airman”.
John Benzie’s name does appear on the grave of his Scots-born parents in Winnipeg, Manitoba. In 1953 a stretch of water in Manitoba became Benzie Lake in John Benzie’s honour.
Geoff Simpson, FRHistS
