Robert Cyril Claude Brooks (27 January 1930 – 23 September 1944) was the youngest Canadian soldier to die in the Second World War.
He enlisted in the 17th (Reserve) Armoured Regiment (Prince Edward Island Light Horse) in early 1944, apparently without his parents' permission.
[1] Brooks was killed in a training accident near Coleman, PEI, at approximately 7:30 p.m. on 23 September 1944, when a Universal Carrier was driven through a guardrail on a bridge, overturning in the water below.
Brooks was trapped beneath the overturned vehicle and drowned, along with two fellow members of the 17th (Reserve) Armoured Regiment, Sergeant D. C. Ramsay and Trooper W.N.
Brooks' father was a serving member of the RCAF, and his mother was receiving a dependent's allowance and assigned pay from her husband.