Skip to main content
Go back

Sub-Lieutenant Margaret Brooke

A young woman in naval officer's uniform

Photo:

© Department of National Defence

Sub-Lieutenant Margaret Brooke was a Nursing Sister and dietician in the Royal Canadian Navy in World War II. She worked in the Navy Hospital at H.M.C.S. Avalon in St. John’s, Newfoundland in 1942. She was returning from two weeks of leave in Canada when she boarded S.S. Caribou to travel back to Newfoundland on October 13th, 1942. She was traveling with her colleague and friend Nursing Sister Agnes Wilkie on the ferry.

Margaret Brooke survived the sinking of S.S. Caribou and tried valiantly to save Agnes Wilkie during the hours they spent in the North Atlantic until survivors were picked up by H.M.C.S. Grandmere. Sadly, Wilkie succumbed to hypothermia before they were rescued and drifted away from Brooke.

Brooke was later made a Member of the Order of the British Empire in recognition of her courageous efforts to save her colleague. She remained in the Royal Canadian Navy after the war and rose to the rank of Lieutenant-Commander before retiring in 1962.