Brigadier Tony Crook

[Gary Hill]

Anyone remember this fine man from Bovy.

Brigadier Tony Crook
(Filed: 01/06/2005)

Brigadier Tony Crook, who has died aged 91, was awarded an MC while serving in France with the British Expeditionary Force in 1940.

In May, Crook, then a captain, was regimental medical officer to the 2nd Battalion, Royal Warwickshire Regiment during the withdrawal to Dunkirk. On May 19 the battalion was on the main road to Tournai when it came under a devastating air attack. Crook commandeered a chemist's shop, and he and his orderlies worked their way through the carnage trying to do what they could for the burnt and wounded men.

A week later, 2nd Royal Warwicks was ordered to hold the village of Wormhoudt at all costs. On the afternoon of May 27, the town was dive-bombed by Stukas. Many houses were set on fire and the streets were littered with rubble and telephone wires. The next day, as German artillery and mortar fire intensified, the wounded poured into Crook's regimental aid post (RAP).

Learning that some wounded men were in a neighbouring house, Crook took a syringe of morphine and went to find them. The town was being overrun by the SS Liebstandarte Adolf Hitler Regiment, which had a reputation for ruthlessness. A German storm-trooper appeared from behind a bush and covered Crook with his machine gun.

At that moment, Crook said afterwards, his Red Cross armlet and the protection technically afforded him under the Geneva Convention did not seem likely to keep him alive. He was, however, marched back to the RAP, where all who were able to walk were evacuated.

When Crook asked to be allowed to go back to Wormhoudt to look after other wounded, to his surprise he was given a pass enabling him to go through the German lines. This gave him a great chance to get away, but he returned to the village, searched the buildings, found a truck and transferred his injured comrades to it.

He used his pass to get through several enemy units, but eventually the vehicle was halted at a road-block and towed across country to a German field dressing station. Later, Crook found that he had been awarded an MC for his exemplary courage and self-sacrifice.

Anthony Crook was born at Eastbourne, Sussex, on December 21 1913 and educated at Mill Hill. He came from a long line of doctors and, like many of his forebears, he qualified at Guy's Hospital. He was commissioned into the RAMC and posted to the 2nd Battalion, Royal Warwickshire Regiment.

After his capture, Crook worked at the British Hospital, Boulogne, by then in German hands, dealing with a mass of seriously wounded who could not be evacuated. He tried to build a boat in a hut in the grounds; but an injury to his hand turned septic and he was confined to bed.

Crook was moved to Oflag 1XAH at Spangenberg, near Kassel. There was little doctoring to be done, and he concentrated on trying to hoodwink the Medical Commission into repatriating fit officers on the ground of acute illness by substituting their records with those of TB patients which he purchased from French PoWs.

A failed escape attempt from a hospital at Schleiz, near Plauen in the Sudetenland, led to a transfer to Stalag IX C at Bad Sulza, near Leipzig, and 14 days in the "cooler" on a diet of bread and water. After a succession of transfers, he was sent to run the PoW camp hospital at Willenberg, near Marienburg, south of Danzig.

In January 1945 the Red Army was closing in, and the Germans decided to evacuate all but the sick, the English doctors, padres and nursing orderlies. More than 8,000 men were assembled, and the huge column marched off westwards into the freezing night. Some who could not keep up were shot, some died of hypothermia, some of starvation, some of dysentery.

Many of Crook's comrades thought that he was mad to stay with his charges. Some warned him that he would be a prime target if the Nazis decided to liquidate Allied PoWs; others advised him to put as many miles as possible between himself and the advancing Russians.

When the Russians attacked Marienburg, the hospital was evacuated, and the sick and the medical staff sought refuge from the shell and mortar fire in trenches in the grounds. In February, Crook and his staff set off with the wounded in a convoy of bicycles and horse-drawn carts, travelling south-east.

After three weeks, they reached Niedenburg, where they took a train to Odessa and eventually embarked on the troopship Duchess of Bedford. Crook broke his journey at Malta and flew back to England in a converted bomber.

On his return he learned that, when Wormhoudt was overrun, about 100 men, mostly from "D" Company, 2nd Royal Warwicks, had been massacred in a barn outside the village.

Crook was posted to India, serving in military hospitals at Delhi, Poona and elsewhere, before moving to Malaya. Spells at Staff College and at Shape led to command of BMH Freetown in 1956.

He was promoted colonel in 1961 on his posting to HQ 2 Division BAOR as Assistant Director of Medical Services. Command of MH Catterick and then Tidworth was followed by a move to HQ SW District, again as ADMS. After an appointment as commandant at the RAMC Training Centre, he served as DDMS HQ Northern Command and then as ADMS HQ North East District. He retired in 1973 in the rank of brigadier.

Crook settled in Dorset and spent many happy years as Resident Medical Officer of the Royal Armoured Corps Junior Leaders Regiment at Bovington. He took up painting and also became an accomplished horologist. He was known affectionately as "Doc the Clock", and his home became a repository for ticking patients which were carefully restored to health. He published Barbed-Wire Doctor, an account of his war experiences, in 1996.

Tony Crook died on April 24. He married first, in 1939, Roberta Brabazon (née Dyson). The marriage was dissolved and he married secondly, in 1947, Daphne Batten, who predeceased him. He is survived by two daughters.

[eric harding]

makes a bod feel a bit humble .....rip

[Chris Young]

During basic training/JLR we are told so much about regimental hístory and heroes but given that this guy wasn't badged to "us" it comes as no surprise that his name does not ring a bell.

What is clear though, and we have seen recent examples of it, is that we have heroes in our midst. Some are young and some are old. Some look for glory, some think only of others.

Fact is, I doff my cap to them.

I can only reccomend anybody who has not done the Battlefields & Graveyards thing in France, no matter how scynical he is, to do so. Whilst it cannot be compared to modern warfare it brings home a hell of a sense of humolity!!

[robert jones]

Talk about unsung heroes, this man was truly decicated to his chosen profession,even though he wore an Army uniform, he showed total disregard to his own safety in those trying times, and at a time when most people would have been thinking of thier own well being, he still thought of others, a true officer and a gentleman.

[Dave Henley]

RIP Doc. Being an ex-JLR I visited him on a couple of occasions but, as Chris rightly points out, we were only fed a diet of RAC history and didn't realise he had such an esteemed military background himself. I always held him in high regard as he was the gentleman who signed the chit to allow me to exchange ammo boots for DMS!

[Paul Ramsay]

Chris we are going to do the French bit in 18 months time - 4 days in all cumulating in the 90th anniversary of Cambrai - great guide and a well planned tour taking in the best of the battlefields - At a very reasonable cost, Ive got about 20 names already and should be a well worth while and satisfying 4/5 days. I never got the chance in the Army but nothing to stop me doing it now.


Join us Herr Young!! your wit and intelligence will be greatly enjoyed along with the other 48 comedians that will be making the trip!!icon_truc:

[Bill Kinsella]

Detail please Paul

[Gilbert Bridger]

I remeber being in the MRS there, had an allergic reaction to the smallpox jab. Spent 3 days there. Doc would visit 3 or 4 times a day. Great bloke as I remember. Did not know his history. Amazing to think what he done. Hero for sure. R.I.P Sir!!!

Gilby