Obituary: Margaret Martha Brooke, Canadian naval hero

Margaret Martha Brooke (BHSC'35, BA'65, PhD'71), a palaeotologist and Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) Nursing Sister decorated for gallantry in combat during the Second World War, died on January 9, 2016 in Victoria, B.C. at the age of 100 years.

On April 13, 2015 the Government of Canada announced that an Arctic/Offshore Patrol Ship (AOPS) would be named after Brooke, who holds degrees from the U of S College of Home Economics and the Department of Geological Sciences at the College of Arts & Science. She is the author of several papers in the field of palaeontology.

On October 14, 1942, during a crossing of the Cabot Strait off the coast of Newfoundland, the ferry SS Caribou was torpedoed by the German submarine U-69. The ferry sank in five minutes. Fighting for her own survival, Lieutenant-Commander (LCdr) Brooke also did everything humanly possible to save the life of her colleague and friend, Nursing Sister Sub-Lieutenant Agnes Wilkie, while both women clung to ropes on a capsized lifeboat. In spite of Brooke’s heroic efforts to hang on to her with one arm, her friend succumbed to the frigid water.

For this selfless act, Brooke was named a member (Military Division) of the Order of the British Empire.

The HMCS Margaret Brooke will be the second of six Harry DeWolf-class AOPS constructed as part of Canada's National Shipbuilding Procurement Strategy. Construction began in 2015.

Brooke grew up in the small farming community of Ardath, SK during the Depression. Her mother was determined that her daughter would attend university so, in 1933, she moved to Saskatoon to attend the University of Saskatchewan.

After earning a BHSC in 1935, she joined the Royal Canadian Navy in 1942. She was serving as a Nursing Sister in the RCN hospital in HMCS Stadacona, Halifax, NS, when the fateful ferry incident occurred.

After she retired from the RCN in 1962, she returned to Saskatoon and the University of Saskatchewan where she earned a BA and then a PhD in biostratigraphy and micro-palaeontology. She remained in the Department of Geological Sciences as an instructor and research associate until her retirement in 1986.

Vice-Admiral Mark Norman, Commander of the Royal Canadian Navy, issued a statement on behalf of the RCN and the Canadian Armed Forces on the passing of Lieutenant-Commander (ret’d) Brooke, calling her a “true Canadian naval hero.”

Government of Canada news release

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