Paying by weekly shilling installments, he bought a camera himself which he used to take pictures of prominent people for publication; his first portrait was sold to several newspapers through an agency, earning him seven guineas.

[9] Brooks' photographs were published in numerous newspapers including the Daily Mirror,[10] and the Manchester Guardian;[11] as his contract with the Royal Family prevented him from selling exclusive rights.

[14] After returning from India he left the royal household to open a studio on Buckingham Palace Road in central London,[15] meanwhile continuing to describe himself as the Official Photographer to the King and Queen.

[17] When the Gallipoli landings were being prepared, Winston Churchill (then First Lord of the Admiralty), who had himself been a war correspondent, arranged for there to be journalists and photographers accompanying the expeditionary force.

[10] In March 1916, he was transferred from the Admiralty to the War Office, given the honorary rank of second lieutenant and appointed the official photographer for the Western Front.

[23] The American leg of the tour posed problems with people trying to capitalise on the Prince's appearance for publicity purposes; one prominent actress, Mildred Harris Chaplin, passed herself off as the niece of a local dignitary in order to be photographed, whilst another offered Brooks a bribe of a thousand dollars to arrange a picture.

It is likely that it was connected to his arrest and conviction for "insulting behaviour" to a young woman at an international hockey match in April; he was fined £8 and told that he had narrowly escaped imprisonment.

[27] Later that year, after his fall from grace, he published a series of articles in the American McClure's Magazine, "Kings, Princes, Governors", which gave "intimate anecdotes" of the royal court.

[31] However, he continued to work as a photographer; in 1928, he was convicted of disorderly behaviour outside a ball in Grosvenor Square, after claiming that he was acquainted with the hostess and that had been invited there to take pictures.

[37] His work was noted as being characterised by a "conscious seeking after a publishable photograph",[36] and it was recorded that he occasionally persuaded soldiers to pose for staged pictures of routine activity in the trenches.