Marshall Brooks

Marshall Brooks

Birth name	Marshall Jones Brooks
Date of birth	May 30, 1855
Place of birth	Haslingden, Lancashire
Date of death	January 5, 1944
Place of death	Tarporley, Cheshire (aged 88 years 220 days)
School	Rugby School
University	Brasenose College, Oxford
Rugby union career
Position(s)  Fullback Amateur team(s) Years Team Apps (Points) - Oxford University,ref>Francis Marshall, Football, the rugby union game, p150, (1892), Cassell:London</ref> () International career Years Team Apps (Points) 1874 England 1

Marshall Brooks was a rugby union international who represented England in 1874 , and is reputed to have once held the world record for the High Jump.

Early life

Marshall Brooks was born on May 30, 1855 in Haslingden, Lancashire, the second son of Thomas Brooks, 1st Baron Crawshaw of Crawshaw and Catherine Jones. He attended Rugby School and went on to study at Brasenose College, Oxford from where he received his Master of Arts (M.A.).

Rugby union career

Brooks, having played for the Rugby School side, continued his playing at Oxford and there won a blue. From Oxford he was called u for England, and made his only international appearance on February 23rd, 1874 at The Oval against Scotland match.

Athletics

At Oxford Brooks was also an athletics blue. He won the Varsity Match High Jump in both 1874 and 1876 and went on to become the British Amateur Champion in both those years. Prior to 1912, the high jump world record was not ratified by the IAAF and therefore there is only an unofficial progression. However, on 30 Mar 1874 Brooks is said to have jumped 1.80m which at the time was the highest thus far recorded in the world. The mark was the next year equaled by a fellow Oxford student, Michael George Glazebrook, but on 17 March 1876, in Oxford, Brooks broke the record by jumping 1.83m. He broke this the next month in London, jumping 1.89m on 7th April 1876. This mark stood for four years until broken by Patrick Davin of Ireland on 5th July 1880, in Garrick.

Later life and family

Brooks married Florence Thomas, the daughter of Frederick Freeman Thomas and Hon. Mabel Brand, on 29 April 1889 with whom he had the following children:

1. Dorothy Brooks b. 22 Mar 1890
2. Thomas Marshall Brooks b. 23 Feb 1893, d. 15 Sep 1967
3. Noel Brand Brooks b. 17 Dec 1896, d. 1984
4. Marjorie Nell Brooks b. 11 Dec 1901, d. 1993

Brooks at one point held the office of Justice of the Peace for Cheshire and also the office of Justice of the Peace for Lancashire. He died on 5 January 1944 in Tarporley, Cheshire, England.