[7] Brake was educated at the Princes Hill High School, the Hawthorn College,[8][9] and the University of Melbourne.

[11] At the 1914 Australasian Athletics Championships, with a height of 11 ft (3.35m) – Brake set a new record for a Victorian Amateur, breaking the record he had set (10 ft 6in) at the Victorian Championships in February 1912[12]) – he tied for first place in the pole vault with the visiting Stanford University athlete Dink Templeton.

[13] While at the University of Melbourne he was awarded a triple blue: for athletics, football, and rifle shooting.

The University team withdrew from the VFL competition prior to the 1915 season; and, along with his team-mates Claude Bryan, Jack Doubleday, Dick Gibbs, Roy Park, and Percy Rodriguez, Brake was given a clearance to transfer from University to Melbourne.

[27] Brake enlisted in the Third Division Artillery of the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) at the start of the war, reaching the rank of Lieutenant.