Born 19 February 1839 at Waterside North, Lincoln, the son of William Henry Brook, who had come to Lincoln County Hospital as a house surgeon and had married Miss Winn, the only daughter of John Winn, a brewer in the town. Charles Brook was educated privately at a school kept by Miss Richards, first in Lincoln and afterwards in Kensington Square, London. In 1851 he entered the Lincoln Grammar School, which had just been re-opened by the Rev G F Simpson, and remained there until 1857, when he was apprenticed to John Hewson, FRCS, surgeon to the hospital. He entered St Bartholomew's Hospital in 1858, where he distinguished himself by winning a scholarship and prizes for anatomy and clinical surgery. He acted for a short time as house surgeon, but resigned on account of his father's illness and spent three months with him in Egypt in 1861. Returning to Lincoln in April 1862, he entered into practice with his father's old partners, John Hewson and Edward Farr Broadbent, and two years later was elected surgeon to the Lincoln County Hospital. He married his cousin, Miss Brook, in 1864, and moved from Pottergate to Newland, where he soon acquired a large and influential practice. In 1900 he became consulting surgeon and in 1921 was elected a Vice-president of the county hospital. He was also chairman of the Lincoln dispensary. He received a commission as assistant surgeon in the Royal North Lincoln Militia in 1862, was promoted surgeon-major in 1877, and retired in 1891. On the outbreak of war in 1914 he was active in rousing the medical practitioners in the neighbourhood to volunteer for active service, was himself appointed senior medical officer on the surgical staff of the 4th Northern General Hospital, and retired in 1918 with the rank of lieutenant-colonel. Apart from his medical qualifications, Charles Brook was for many years a prominent citizen of Lincoln. He was an enthusiastic sportsman, excelling in cricket, a keen rider to hounds, and a good shot. He was chairman of the Lincoln race committee until 1926, and raced under the name of Mr Seabrook. He also had a considerable practical knowledge of farming. He had, too, sound business capacity and was chairman of the Lincoln and Lindsey Bank and of the Midland Counties Insurance Company. He was chairman of the local Conservative Association, in 1888 his name was added to the Commission of the Peace, and at the time of his death he was the senior magistrate at the Lincoln police court and chairman of the Monday Bench. He also acted as chairman of the Lincoln division of the British Medical Association from 1924 to 1928. As a medical man he was a fine operator and was distinguished for his clinical acumen, his power of diagnosis, and his shrewdness in treatment. In person he was short and dark; in temper abrupt and somewhat domineering. He died on 10 August 1930, survived by a son and a daughter, his wife and elder son having predeceased him. Publications:- Hospitalism and statistics of the late outbreak in Lincoln county hospital. *Lancet*, 1874, 1, 401. Mania from traumatic meningitis, trephining, evacuation of serous effusion, complete recovery. *Ibid*. 1904, 1, 1794.