Name

Edward W. Brooker

Gender

Male

Birth date

active by 1846

Death date

after 1863

Movements

Australian waters 1847-50, Australia c.1860-63

Occupations

Artist (water-colouristist) | Naval Officer

Summary

Worked: Australia. Prints after

Context

Australia

Biography

Edward W. Brooker

Edward W. Brooker served in HMS Rattlesnake as Acting Master's Assistant.  From 1846 to 1850 HMS Rattlesnake voyaged to northern Australia and New Guinea, surveying the Great Barrier Reef. Also aboard was the famous naturalist Thomas Henry Huxley. Brooker was commissioned during the Crimean war and was awarded the Légion d'honneur.  Lieutenant Brooker subsequently returned to Tasmania in the early 1960s and was stationed in Hobart surveying the Derwent River and surrounding coastal waters. As a hydrographer and artist he travelled widely and his watercolours include views of Sabastopol, Crete, Egypt, Brazil, Cape Town, Istanbul, Hong Kong, New Guinea, Japan as well as Australia. Brooker’s coastal views appear on admiralty charts and prints were made from his images of the Crimean War. 

© Australianprints, 2013

Last Updated

28 Apr 2021